T20 Blast: James Bracey steers Gloucestershire to win at Glamorgan

Glamorgan failed to build on opener David Lloyd's 68 off 43 balls

Gloucestershire eased to a five-wicket T20 win over Glamorgan with an over to spare thanks to 63 off 49 balls from James Bracey.

Bracey and Glenn Phillips (40) played key roles as Gloucestershire reached 159-5.

They have seven points from six games, while Glamorgan have five from seven.

David Lloyd top scored for Glamorgan with 68 off 43 balls in their 158-8, but they failed to capitalise on a fine start.

The captain smashed 10 fours and a six pin Glamorgan's highest innings of the campaign as he put on 90 for the first wicket with Sam Northeast, who made 24 at a run a ball.

Canny seamer Benny Howell dismissed both men in a fine spell of 2-34.

South African batter Colin Ingram fell for 10 on his return to the side, as Gloucestershire's slower bowlers slammed the brakes on the scoring rate with Phillips (2-22 in three overs), Tom Smith (1-28) and captain Jack Taylor (0-11 off two) all highly effective.

Just 69 runs came off the second 10 overs, with David Payne also picking up a couple of wickets as Glamorgan failed to find the regular boundaries they needed.

Remarkably, Ryan Higgins was brought on to bowl the final over and conceded just three off the bat as Gloucestershire made light of the absence of Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah for family reasons.

Glamorgan were without their Australian paceman Michael Neser because of Covid, and Miles Hammond and Bracey got the visitors off to a flyer with a rapid stand of 58 in 6.2 overs before Hammond holed out off Dan Douthwaite for 31 off 22.

Ian Cockbain chipped a return catch to Prem Sisodiya for 10 but Bracey found an experienced partner in Glenn Phillips, as they moved well ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target either side of a rain break.

They put on 76 in 8.5 overs to break the back of the chase before Phillips, with 40 off 27, was well held by Michael Hogan on the long-on boundary off Douthwaite (3-30).

Hogan had Bracey caught on the mid-wicket ropes but it was too late to affect the result.

Glamorgan are home to Hampshire on Friday, 10 June, while Gloucestershire host derby rivals Somerset the day before.

Glamorgan captain David Lloyd told BBC Sport Wales:

"We were probably 15-20 runs short, we had a really good start but it was quite hard when new batters came in so it needed one of us to go deep and unfortunately we didn't do that.

"I felt good, I've felt good for every game and it hasn't quite come off but that's T20 cricket. We've been so close every game but haven't put together that perfect performance which we're looking to do.

"There'll be a fresh wicket Friday so we'll see which way to go (with selection), there's still a lot of cricket left in this format and teams who get on a roll can still do it.

"The way the lads (quick bowlers) have gone up top has been superb, Hoges has come back into this format and shown what he's still capable of doing, Neser has been great as well. We saved Prem for the middle and he bowled extremely well but we'll have a look at how we go about things on Friday."

Gloucestershire all-rounder Glenn Phillips told BBC Radio Bristol:

"It was a really good all-round performance, Glamorgan with Lloydy batted really well upfront and took it to our bowlers early on.

"But we brought it back nicely, the way Bracey batted throughout our innings with a few others chipping in which is always helpful when you're trying to chase a par total.

"We knew spin was going to play quite a big part from one end, it was drier one end and more green at the other, so it was about managing our seamers one end and Jack did that really well, using all our spinners available.

"I enjoy all my wickets, it just depends on the tenseness of the situation and those moments are the ones I look forward to most, to win that one was big for me personally as well as for the team."