Smale's pace puts Glamorgan on fast track to big win

Will Smale's career-best 65 handed Glamorgan their third Men's Vitality Blast win of the summer, and kept Essex on zero points at the foot of the table.

Batter Smale had watched sister Sophia score a season's best 24 in a losing cause for Essex against Hampshire Hawks earlier in the day and, as the older of the two, decided to win the sibling rivalry. He put on 84 with Colin Ingram as Glamorgan piled on 220 against the low-in-confidence Eagles.

Luc Benkenstein launched 62 off 32, but he couldn't prevent Essex from five defeats from five, with Mason Crane grabbing 3 for 24.

Glamorgan were stuck in, scored a boundary off the first ball, and stayed above 10 runs an over for the entire innings - to produce their sixth highest T20 score of all-time.

Kiran Carlson, who had scored 93 in the reverse fixture, and Ben Kellaway fell in the powerplay but 60 runs gave them the platform to explode - something Smale and Ingram did in style.

Smale had already fired two sixes into the Chelmsford neighbourhood in the first six overs, but kept spamming the airspace with two more maximums on his way to a 29-ball half-century.

Not to be outdone, Ingram rocketed one off his legs and another straight down the ground, as the pair put on 84 runs in 43 balls. But just as scores of 250 started to be dreamt up, Essex fought back. In 13 balls, they turned 144 for 2 into 152 for 5.

Matt Critchley bookended the stint by having Smale dragging to long-on and Asa Tribe skying down the ground, with Benkenstein forcing Ingram to mistime to long-off in between.

Dan Douthwaite put the pep back into the visitor's run-making with three huge sixes in a 12-ball 30 as Glamorgan locked in on an above-par total. Even though Chris Cooke pulled onto his own stumps, Douthwaite and Timm van der Gugten took 34 runs off the last two overs to take them to 220.

Essex lost three wickets in the powerplay as Adam Rossington edged to first slip, Dean Elgar was caught and bowled and Michael Pepper feathered an edge behind.

On his return from England Lions duty, Jordan Cox attempted to kick the chase into gear. Two big swings off Andy Gorvin and a trio of middled fours laid a base, but an excellent long-on catch saw him off.

From there, the Eagles disappeared from the contest as Crane had Walter slicing to point, Critchley bowled, and Shane Snater holing out. Kellaway had dismissed Cox with his left arm, then used his right to see off Simon Harmer, via a flying Govin grab at cover.

Benkenstein hammered an outrageous 24-ball fifty to give Essex some respect, but Glamorgan bowled Essex out for 180 to cruise to a 40-run demolition.