Marshall fires Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire 282 for 5 (Marshall 105*, Harvey 91) beat Surrey 278 for 6 (Benning 52, Ramprakash 58) by 5 wickets
Scorecard
Points table

Ian Harvey scored a blistering 91 off 69 balls © Getty Images

Gloucestershire chased down a formidable Surrey total at The Oval to take them to the brink of promotion. Their overseas players walked away with much of the credit, Ian Harvey cracked 91 from 69 balls, and Hamish Marshall beasted an unbeaten 105 from 84, in a third-wicket stand of 161 from just 21 overs. Gloucestershire sped home with 11 balls to spare.

Harvey was in glorious touch before holing out at long-on and Marshall was simply spectacular as he cut, pulled and drove over the top on his way to a century which came up in 84 balls, with ten fours and two sixes.

Surrey's 278 should have been enough, but they fielded poorly, and defeat puts a significant dent in their promotion hopes. James Benning continued his exceptional one-day summer with 52 off 54 balls in an opening partnership of 121 in 16 overs with Scott Newman. Mark Ramprakash and Jon Batty also scored fifties, sharing a fifth-wicket stand of 111, cheered loudly by a crowd of 6000 who were in hearty voice, while Steve Kirby claimed three top-order wickets to help contain the Surrey run rate.

Gloucestershire top the table with 12 points with one game left, while Surrey lie third with nine points and two to play.