County finish with defeat

8:59pm Friday 27th June 2008

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WORCESTERSHIRE Royals Twenty20 Cup petered out in a final defeat to Glamorgan Dragons.

In what was supposed to be a sell-out at New Road, many fans stayed away for this dead-rubber with neither side having a chance of progression to the last eight.

In a match that was as grey as the skies, the result could have gone either way until Mark Wallace hit 21 off five balls in the 19th over to seal victory.

But it looked as if both sides were going through the motions.

The wicket was slow and the Royals score of 141-8 was a reasonable one from their 20 overs with Graeme Hick getting 59 off 45 balls, hitting two sixes and five fours.

Daryl Mitchell, who recorded Worcestershire’s best-ever Twenty20 bowling figures at Gloucestershire of 4-11 on Wednesday, hit his highest score in the competition with an unbeaten 31 off 17 balls.

The Dragons took more than three overs to reach what the Royals did in their opening six balls and they still needed 42 from the final four.

But Jamie Dalrymple crack-ed 38 off 24 balls, including four fours and a six and Wallace hit two fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 26 to guide the Welsh county to victory with seven balls to spare.

The Royals must now put this disappointing competition behind them and focus on Championship promotion.