FRIENDS PROVIDENT TROPHY
Glamorgan 299-2 beat Essex 297-6 by eight wickets

Gareth Rees hit an unbeaten one-day best century as Glamorgan cruised to a high-scoring eight-wicket FP Trophy win over Essex at Chelmsford.

Varun Chopra hit 99, sharing in a 117-run fourth-wicket stand with Grant Flower (54), as Essex racked up an imposing 297-6 from their 50 overs.

But Rees plundered 16 fours in his 123, off 138 balls, as Glamorgan got home on 299-2 with 23 deliveries to spare.

He was given ample support by Mark Cosgrove (72) and Tom Maynard (59).

The Dragons, who had lost their first two Group D matches, looked up against it after being asked to chase almost 300 to win.

Put into bat, Essex owed much to the efforts of Chopra, although there were also decent contributions from Flower, Graham Napier (42) and Jason Gallian (38).

But Cosgrove got the visitors off to a flier, smashing 72 off just 36 balls, including 10 fours and three sixes.

When he was out after 40 minutes of mayhem, the score was on 80 and Rees had not even reached double figures.

But he went on to hit 16 fours of his own as he kept on course for Glamorgan's biggest successful one-day run chase against a fellow first-class county in 12 years.

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