Matt Taylor held his nerve to guide Gloucestershire County Cricket Club to a dramatic two-wicket victory in the Vitality Blast Severnside derby.
Glamorgan vs Gloucestershire, Match 10, Vitality Blast
Vitality Blast – Men: Gloucestershire 158/8 beat Glamorgan 157/8 by two wickets.
Gloucestershire 4 pts, Glamorgan 0 pts.
By Blake Bint, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Matt Taylor’s thick outside edge for four gave Gloucestershire a thrilling final ball two-wicket win in the Vitality Blast men’s competition Severnside derby.
Needing 15 off the final over, Matt Taylor and Kamran Dhariwal gave the Bristol-based side their second win to be early frontrunners of the Central and South group thanks also to Miles Hammond’s 31-ball 56 and a threatening spell returning 3 for 27 from Duan Jansen.
Henry Hurle starred on debut for Glamorgan with 46 to help recover Glamorgan from a precarious 45 for 5 to reach a competitive 157 for 8.
Hampered by injuries to Dawid Malan (calf) and David Payne Gloucestershire picked an unchanged side. Glamorgan were forced into two changes from their three-run defeat in Northampton as Dan Douthwaite sustained a hamstring injury and Colin Ingram also picked up a knock. Nathan McAndrew was also unavailable with a return expected before facing Somerset on Friday.
Glamorgan got off to the worst possible start as Will Smale attempted to ramp Jansen with third and fine leg vacant only to be uprooted first ball. Alex Horton finding the boundary and then having an aimless swipe fell to his demise and Kiran Carlson finding the boundary a couple of times before mistiming an attempted pull off a length ball gave Marchant de Lange a wicket on his return to Cardiff.
Chris Cooke and debutant Hurle managed to offer a recovery from 45 for 5 while upping the rate with 24 taken from two overs, denting the otherwise impressive figures from De Lange and Jack Taylor.
Hurle’s knock was something of all or nothing, the Cardiff-born 21-year-old hit just one four, a shot worthy of more on aesthetics alone, ramping over the keeper. His four sixes though, notably two slog sweeps off Matt Taylor and Craig Miles along with an ability to rotate the strike with Cooke, and later Timm van der Gugten made for a very admirable debut.
Timm van der Gugten swivelling from the hip off Matt Taylor for one of three sixes in the 17th over helped the Glamorgan innings for a late contribution, reaching a 50 partnership with Hurle from just 26 balls.
Gloucestershire soon found themselves reduced to 7 for 3 inside two overs with D’arcy Short strangled down the leg-side to go with ducks for Ollie Price and Ben Charlesworth.
Jack Taylor initially played supporter to the destructive Miles Hammond with shot of the innings coming when skipping down to pile Ned Leonard over his head into the River Taff after passing 50 to then be bowled next ball.
James Bracey’s dismissal was the strangest likely to be seen all tournament, looking to protect his stumps and kick the encroaching ball away only to dislodge the bails with the attempted football skill.
Jack Taylor moved from a struggling 16 off 20 to a respectable strike rate with back to back boundaries off Leonard to keep the chase alive despite wickets continually falling.
Kamran Dhariwal looked every part an established cricketer in just his second professional game holding Gloucestershire together while batting with the tail including watching on from the non-strikers end when Matt Taylor sent the final ball flying to the boundary.
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