Gloucestershire 158 for 8 (Hammond 56) beat Glamorgan 157 for 8 (Hurle 46, Jansen 3-27) by two wickets

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 of 3 for 27 from Duan Jansen.

Henry Hurle starred on debut for Glamorgan with 46 to help Glamorgan recover from a precarious 45 for 5 to reach a competitive 157 for 8.

Hampered by injuries to Dawid Malan (calf) and David Payne (ankle), 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 found the boundary but then had an aimless swipe to fall to his demise and Kiran Carlson then mistimed an attempted pull off a length ball to give 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 somewhat 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.

Van der Gugten swivelled Matt Taylor off the hip for one of his three sixes in the 17th over in a late boost to the Glamorgan innings, 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 the shot of the innings coming when he skipped down to pile Ned Leonard over his head into the River Taff after passing 50, but he was then bowled next ball.

James Bracey’s dismissal was a strange one, as he looked to protect his stumps and kicked 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.

Dhariwal looked every part an established cricketer in just his second professional game, as he held Gloucestershire together while batting with the tail, including watching on from the non-striker’s end when Matt Taylor sent the final ball flying to the boundary.