Hampshire top of the table, Cooke blasts 161 for Glamorgan

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Cooke's belligerent knock helped Glamorgan to victory © Getty

Gloucestershire vs Glamorgan, Bristol

Glamorgan thumped Gloucestershire by a big margin of 74 runs in the South group clash on Tuesday at Bristol.

After electing to bat first, the visitors posted a huge score of 331 - a total that was sufficient to give them a comfortable win. The first hour of the match belonged to the home team as they claimed three early wickets but they would have hardly anticipated what followed next as Chris Cooke played a scintillating knock of 161(127) to rip apart Gloucestershire's bowling attack.

Billy Root walked out to bat in the 13th over and it was the fourth wicket partnership between him and Cooke that changed the momentum in the visiting team's favour. The pair stitched a 234-run stand and took the game away from Gloucestershire - a blow the hosts could never recover from.

With a mountain to climb in the second innings, the chasing team absolutely succumbed under the scoreboard pressure and lost a flurry of wickets at the top. Jack Taylor in the later stages played a brave knock of 75 but after the kind of start the team got off to, it was never going to be easy to chase the target down. South African pacer Marchant de Lange was the wrecker-in-chief as he bagged three crucial wickets as the opposition was eventually bundled out for 257.

Brief scores: Glamorgan 331/7 in 50 overs (Cooke 161, Root 98; Howell 3/83) beat Gloucestershire 257 in 48.3 overs (Taylor 75, van Buuren 41, de Lange 3/44) by 74 runs.

Surrey vs Hampshire, The Oval

On a good batting wicket in Oval, Surrey's decision to bowl first backfired as Hampshire posted a total in excess of 300 - a score that proved to be more than enough on the day for the visitors.

Surrey got an early breakthrough in the form of opener Tom Alsop who was dismissed for a duck. But Aiden Markram's innings of 88 negated the early loss as Hampshire recovered quickly and soon after it was the Dawson show that took over. Liam Dawson went on to score a superb century that came at a strike rate of 116 and as a result of his knock Hampshire finished with 307 in the first innings.In reply, openers Mark Stoneman and Will Jacks got Hampshire off to a decent start with the former notching up a 68-ball 70 but after his dismissal things went haywire for Surrey as wickets kept tumbling regularly and they fell short of the target by 53 runs. Kyle Abbott claimed three wickets while Dawson bagged two wickets in addition to his century. It was a perfect all-round performance by him and the prime reason behind Hampshire's comfortable victory.

Brief scores: Hampshire 307 in 49.2 overs (Dawson 108, Markram 88, McKerr 3/59) beat Surrey 254 in 46.2 overs (Stoneman 70, Burns 38; Abbott 3/58) by 53 runs.

Essex vs Sussex, Chelmsford

Sussex pulled off a thriller against Essex as they won by 1 wicket in a last-over finish at Chelmsford on Tuesday.

Having elected to bat first, Essex posted 283 as all their top order batsmen chipped in with handy contributions. Varun Chopra and Alastair Cook gave a decent start with a 73-run opening stand while Westley and Lawrence who batted at number 3 and number 4 respectively scored fifties. For Sussex, David Wiese was the top wicket taker of the innings with 3 wickets.

Sussex didn't have a great start during the chase as they lost opener Salt early but Wright and Garton had a decent partnership for the second wicket and led their recovery. Matt Coles of Essex kept chipping wickets at regular intervals but Laurie Evans and Will Beer had different ideas. Their 121-run stand for the seventh wicket proved to pivotal but after their departure it was Danny Briggs who took charge.

Briggs played a decisive knock of 37 that came at a strike rate of 142 and his nerves of steel in death overs helped Sussex get over the line with a ball to spare.

Brief scores: Sussex 287/9 in 49.5 overs (Beer 75, Evans 68; Coles 3/72) beat Essex 283/7 in 50 overs (Westley 61, Lawrence 54; Wiese 3/54) by 1 wicket.