Carl Greenidge was all smiles after dismissing Graeme Hick

Gloucestershire beat Worcestershire by eight wickets to secure their place for next month's Twenty20 finals day.

Put in after a delayed start, the Worcestershire innings was eventually cut to 17 overs after more stoppages and they eventually totalled 123-6.

Craig Spearman went for one at the start of Gloucestershire'e reply, but Hamish Marshall hit 36 off 20 balls.

And chasing a revised target of 129 under Duckworth-Lewis, they reached 131-3 with 17 balls to spare.

Kadeer Ali weighed in with 39 and Chris Taylor was there at the end to guide Gloucestershire home with an unbeaten 31 off 21 balls, including a six and three fours.

Another plus for the home side was the return of skipper Jon Lewis after a lengthy injury lay-off and he got through four tidy overs for figures of 0-15.

"He's an amazing bowler and he's someone who can do that - bowl a lot of dot balls. It was brilliant to have him back," said Kadeer.

"Antony Ireland was unlucky to miss out, but that's the depth of our squad."

The result was a big disappointment for Worcestershire following recent problems caused by flooding at their New Road home and their cause was not helped by two interruptions during their innings.

After losing Graeme Hick and Phil Jaques to Carl Greenidge with only 15 on the board, their innings was rebuilt by Solanki and Ben Smith (37), who added 84 for the third wicket.

But both fell with the score on 99 - Solanki stumped off spinner Ian Fisher after collecting seven boundaries in his 41-ball knock and Smith caught at short fine leg off Ben Edmondson.

The loss of momentum was crucial and Fisher also removed Roger Sillence and Kabir Ali to finish with figures of 3-7 from two overs.

Kabir took the new ball at the start of the Gloucestershire innings, but conceded 20 in his opening over, including one ball which went for four wides down the leg side.

Spearman skied a catch to the keeper of Dewald Nel, but Marshall, Kadeer and Taylor ensured their side was always ahead of the required rate.

Daryl MItchell had Marshall caught on the cover boundary by Gareth Batty and also bowled Kadeer, but it was not enough for the visitors as Taylor and Alex Gidman finished the job.