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WORCESTERSHIRE Royals crashed to a seven-wicket defeat at Gloucestershire Gladiators in their opening Friends Provident Trophy South West Division match.

Having been put into bat, the Royals set the Gladiators 222 to win and the hosts were in cruise control from the start.

Kabir Ali's opening over set the tone as Hamish Marshall and Kadeer Ali hit 13 from it and, while Steve Magoffin bowled tightly, the Nevil Road side were always in front of the required rate after the first five overs.

Kiwi Marshall finally succumbed when Chris Whelan, making his Worcestershire debut, had him caught by Batty at mid-off for 55 and then three balls later the Scouser trapped Alex Gidman leg- before for four.

With his cousin Kabir and his brother Moeen playing for the Royals, Kadeer looked classy for his 63 before being stumped by Steven Davies off the bowling of Gareth Batty.

New Zealander Craig Spearman, who usually opens for Gloucestershire, came in at number four and looked good for his 64, hitting a huge six to win the match.

The Royals made a reasonable start to their innings, but by the fifth over it started to crumble.

Steve Kirby, fully fit and firing after his blow to the head playing for the MCC XI earlier in the month, took two wickets in his first two balls removing Davies and then skipper Vikram Solanki.

Ben Smith managed to survive the hat-trick ball, but seven overs later Moeen picked out Mark Hardinges on the leg-side and Jon Lewis claimed his first wicket as the youngster went for eight.

The former England seamer struck next ball as he trapped Stephen Moore leg-before for a duck and Smith again denied a Gladiator a hat-trick this time driving the player-coach for four.

The veteran batsman, along with Daryl Mitchell, set about repairing the Royals' innings and the pair both passed their half-centuries putting on 124 before Anthony Ireland had the Evesham-born batsman caught by Hardinges for 63.

Smith finally perished as he edged Ireland behind to Stephen Snell for 75.

Gareth Andrew played a decent cameo hitting with a quick-fire 23, but the Royals were about 30 runs short of where they should have been.

7:36pm Sunday 20th April 2008

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