Defiant Sykes can't prevent Gloucestershire's victory cruise

Ollie Sykes struck a defiant 97 off 94 balls but Surrey were still overpowered by a far more experienced Gloucestershire at Guildford in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.

Ben Charlesworth hit four sixes and top-scored with an 83-ball 80 in Gloucestershire's 293 for 9, before Josh Shaw spearheaded an excellent collective display with ball to restrict Surrey to 208 all out in reply.

Fast bowler Shaw produced a five-over new ball spell of 3 for 19 as Surrey slumped initially to 33 for 3, but 20-year-old Sykes - in just his eighth List A game - belied his youth to counter-attack with two sixes and 12 fours and add 99 for the fourth wicket with Josh Blake.

Blake top-edged Graeme van Buuren's slow left arm to short fine leg on 26 to leave Surrey 155 for 5 in the 31st over and Sykes' departure four overs later made it just a matter of time before Gloucestershire wrapped up the lower order.

Van Buuren and Ollie Price, bowling his offspin cannily, had built pressure on Sykes for several overs and their reward was a charge down the pitch to what became a legside wide from van Buuren and an easy stumping for keeper James Bracey.

Surrey's innings had begun with Ryan Patel skying a catch to backward point off Shaw, who then saw Tommy Boorman fling himself to his right at short fine leg to cling on to a full-blooded flick off his pads by Rory Burns.

Burns made 15, Patel 16 and debutant Nikhil Gorantla was soon gone for a third ball duck, athletically caught and bowled by Shaw in his follow through inches from the turf.

Adam Thomas was then held in the cover roles for 6 and Shaw finished with 3 for 29 and Jack Taylor, who cleaned up Surrey's tail, 3 for 16.

Gloucestershire's total, a decent effort on a used pitch, was built around Charlesworth's superbly-judged innings, which ended when he was fifth out in the 39th over.

At halfway, on 125 for 3, there was a danger that Gloucestershire would post a below-par score for a ground with such short square boundaries but Charlesworth was joined in a timely 54-run partnership in ten overs by van Buuren once Jack Taylor had been brilliantly caught in the outfield by a diving Thomas off Steel.

Van Buuren's 33 was then followed by further useful late-innings knocks from Boorman (22), Daz Ahmed, who launched two sixes in a 21-ball 29, and Matt Taylor's hard-hit 27 from 11 balls.

Taylor thumped a six and four fours in the closing overs, topping off an innings which had begun with Bracey driving Yousef Majid's left-hand spin for two straight sixes but which looked like losing its way once Bracey (24) had been spectacularly caught by a sprawling Gorantla at backward point.

Cameron Bancroft was bowled for 18 by a beauty from James Taylor, Surrey's stand-out bowler with 3 for 42 from his ten overs, and Price fell for 26 when he was bowled by Majid.