Sam Curran's triple-wicket maiden inspires Surrey as they keep T20 hopes alive

Bowling star: Sam Curran
Getty Images
Jonathan Hunn18 August 2017

Surrey kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the last eight of the NatWest T20 Blast after they held their nerve to beat Gloucestershire in a low-scoring thriller at The Oval.

Their sixth win of the campaign — secured with four balls to spare — was spearheaded by Sam Curran, who bowled a triple-wicket maiden and sent back Gloucestershire’s top four in the space of nine balls as the visitors posted a modest 130 for nine.

Aaron Finch hit the first ball of the reply from Graeme van Buuren for six but, in trying to repeat the feat, holed out and departed for seven.

Jason Roy’s travails continued when he spooned a Miles slower ball to midwicket to leave Surrey on 23 for two. Rory Burns, with only seven to his name, chipped to deep midwicket to crank up the pressure on Surrey’s middle order. With 62 still needed, Ollie Pope (16) was superbly caught by Kieran Noema-Barnett. Moises Henriques and Curran took the run-rate equation to 40 off the last five overs, only for Henriques to run himself out on 45. Rikki Clarke eased the short-term burden but, on 15, set off for a risky single and was run out. With 15 needed, Curran was bowled, then Stuart Meaker skittled.

Eight were required when David Payne overstepped to concede two runs for a free hit that Gareth Batty smeared through extra cover for two. Batty then sealed the two-wicket win.

Tonight is the final round of matches before the quarter-finals and Gloucestershire are the only team in the Southern Group unable to make the knock-out stages.

The top four will go through along with the leading four from the Northern Group. Middlesex skipper Eoin Morgan, whose side face Glamorgan tonight, said: “I can’t recall a T20 like it.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in