Klinger dashes Glamorgan dreams

Glamorgan's chances of reaching the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals disappeared as Gloucestershire trounced them by nine wickets in the final group match at Cardiff.

Chasing 142 to win, captain Michael Klinger helped Gloucestershire achieve the double over Glamorgan with 86 from 59 balls with 11 fours and a six, as Gloucestershire won with 22 balls to spare.

Glamorgan needed to win to qualify for the last eight but it was a disappointing end to their T20 campaign after they had won their opening four games. Glamorgan, who included former England bowler Simon Jones, were put into bat and could only make 141 for 5 from their 20 overs despite Jim Allenby batting through the innings, scoring 85 from 58 balls with four sixes and six fours.

His dominance was highlighted with only two other batsmen - Marcus North and Murray Goodwin - getting into double figures. And out of 13 boundaries in the innings Allenby struck 10 of them with Glamorgan struggling to dominate a largely inexperience attack.

Openers Allenby and captain North, who was promoted up the order, gave the home side a useful platform scoring 41 from the opening six-over Powerplay. But runs dried up as North was bowled by the impressive Benny Howell leaving Glamorgan 55 for 1 in the ninth over.

The big-hitting Chris Cooke failed to make his mark as he holed out to deep midwicket for just 6 and Nathan McCullum, pushed up the order, was out leg before. It saw Glamorgan struggle to 73 for 3 in the 12th over.

Glamorgan failed to get a boundary from the eighth to the 14th over until Allenby struck his fifth four which saw him reach his 50 from 42 balls. It was Allenby's third half century in nine T20 matches this season. Allenby struck a six to bring up the 100 and followed that up with another six off the final ball of the innings.

Gloucestershire, through Klinger and Chris Dent, made a positive start reaching 18 for 0 after the first two overs from Michael Hogan and Jim Allenby. Klinger and Dent each struck a boundary off Wagg as Gloucestershire reached 32 after four overs.

Glamorgan gambled on slow left armer Dean Cosker bowling the final over of the Powerplay but 12 runs came from it as Gloucestershire reached 50 for 0 after six overs. After Gloucestershire had got to 65 for 0 after eight overs McCullum came into the attack to have Dent caught at long-off.

By the halfway stage Gloucestershire reached 79 for 1 with 15 coming off the 10th over from Simon Jones. Klinger went to a 37-ball half-century as Gloucestershire cruised to victory in the 17th over.