One-Day Cup: Varun Chopra hundred gives Essex easy win over Glamorgan

Royal London One-Day Cup, Sophia Gardens Cardiff
Essex 326-7 (50 overs): Chopra 111, Westley 69, Lawrence 56
Glamorgan 146 all out (31 overs): Bopara 3-26
Essex beat Glamorgan by 180 runs
Scorecard

Varun Chopra spearheaded Essex's opening 180-run win over Glamorgan in the One-Day Cup as he continued his fine form in the fixture.

His innings of 111 was backed up by Tom Westley (69) and a hard-hit 56 from Dan Lawrence.

The visitors' 326-7 always looked formidable, with Glamorgan managing just 146 all out in reply.

Loan keeper Robbie White took five catches as Essex's seamers found the edge regularly, Ravi Bopara with 3-26.

Chopra's innings took his total to a remarkable 333 runs in his last three One-Day Cup innings against Glamorgan, while former England captain Sir Alastair Cook got the scoreboard going with 40 off 41 balls.

Sam Cook, Peter Siddle and Jamie Porter made early inroads for Essex, whose bowlers were always on top although tail-ender Marchant de Lange slogged 36 to become Glamorgan's top scorer.

Essex batsman Varun Chopra told BBC Radio Essex:

"It's pretty much a perfect way to start a new 50-overs campaign, we were in control from ball one and it couldn't have gone much better for us, and white-ball cricket's been pretty good to me in the last few years.

"It was tricky at the start, but myself and Chef (Cook) put on a decent start, Tom picked it up nicely towards the back end of his innings, and gave Dan Lawrence the licence to show his talent and give us the impetus to get a score over 300.

"To get three wickets in the first ten overs is always going to set a side back, then Ravi and Peter Siddle supported them really well in a really strong all-round performance."

Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales:

"I though we bowled reasonably well up front, but a couple of balls fell just short of fielders and then they smashed us with those partnerships in the middle. About 280 would have been a par score, but they cruised past that and then they bowled very well upfront.

"They got a bit more out of the pitch than we did, with some seam movement, they played very well and we're very disappointed."