T20 Blast: Marnus Labuschagne stand in vain as Gloucestershire beat Glamorgan

Glamorgan fell short despite Marnus Labuschagne's unbeaten 93 off 56 balls

Marnus Labuschagne was left unbeaten on 93 as Glamorgan lost by four runs against Gloucestershire.

Playing in his first T20 Blast game, the Australia star hit 10 fours and two sixes in his 56-ball knock.

His fellow overseas colleague Colin Ingram made just one on his Glamorgan return.

Having lost the toss, Glamorgan were set 180 to win against last year's semi-finalists, with Dan Douthwaite taking 3-28.

Glenn Phillips top-scored for the opposition with 44, with the visitors adding 65 runs from the last five overs.

None of Gloucestershire's batsmen reached a half-century but five of them made it past 20 - which was arguably the difference between the sides as Glamorgan's middle to lower order faltered with three ducks.

The wickets were shared by the rest of Glamorgan's bowlers, with one apiece for Andrew Salter, Labuschagne, Timm van der Gugten and Ruaidhri Smith - playing his first game of 2021.

With a crowd of up to 1000 permitted into Sophia Gardens for the second time this year, fans were also treated to some impressive fielding - Nick Selman taking a stunning juggling catch on the boundary to dismiss Phillips, upstaging Kiran Carlson and Labuschagne who also completed stunning boundary efforts.

David Lloyd's emphatic County Championship form as an opening batter continued into the shortest format as he hit a quickfire 28 off 15 balls.

Selman and Ingram fell quickly but an aggressive partnership between Labuschagne and Chris Cooke rebuilt the innings as they added 58 for the fourth wicket.

Labuschagne's running between the wickets was particularly impressive as he constantly took on the fielders and pushed his batting partners to run plenty of twos.

But Glamorgan fell from 126-5 to 144-9 as the medium pace of Benny Howell (3-39) and Ryan Higgins (2-35) did most of the damage.

Labuschagne expertly negotiated the strike to face Higgins' final over with 19 required to win and, despite hitting a four and a six from the final two balls, the target proved too much.

Glamorgan's next game is against Essex Eagles in Cardiff on Sunday, 13 June, while Gloucestershire face Sussex at Bristol on Friday, 11 June.

Glamorgan batsman Marnus Labuschagne told BBC Sport Wales:

"I'm still thinking about where I could have found those extra five runs and taken the game on a little bit more. I'm evaluating that so I know when I'm in that situation again I can get us over the line.

"Pleasing to get some runs but disappointing not to get us over the line. I never doubted I could get a fifty in T20 cricket but for me it's about winning games with Glamorgan, Australia or Queensland.

"Early on my strokes weren't too different (to longer formats) but through the middle of the innings it looks a lot different in terms of targeting the right areas, it's a new and exciting challenge.

"It's nice to have the crowd back so it would have been a pity if we'd had to go off (because of bad light as the floodlights were not functioning)."

Gloucestershire all-rounder Benny Howell told BBC Radio Bristol:

"It's always hard to come here because this lot always do well against us, so really good to get a win here.

"We knew it was a tough target but it got tough for us when they got a partnership going, but we got a few wickets towards the middle and back end which helped us.

"We weren't 100% and there are definitely areas we can improve on from tonight but it shows the quality of our side. To get up to 180 when we weren't at our best was pleasing and great to get the win.

"When we're at our best, other teams had better watch out."