South Group: Glamorgan 172-4 (Ingram 64) beat Gloucestershire 168-8 (Noema-Barnett 37; Steyn 2-21) by six wickets
Colin Ingram and Aneurin Donald again made hay for in-form Glamorgan, who secured another limited-overs triumph in this six-wicket win over Gloucestershire.
It represents the Welsh county’s fifth win out of six white-ball matches and their third in four T20 games, lifting Robert Croft’s side to the summit of the South Group, albeit at this very early stage.
A slippery ball and damp outfield did neither side any favours but Glamorgan wrestled control from the moment Jacques Rudolph called correctly at the toss and stuck Gloucestershire into bat.
From there, they barely took their foot off Gloucestershire’s throats.
First it was the pace duo of Dale Steyn and Timm van der Gugten ripping through the home side’s top order, later it was Ingram and Donald catapulting Glamorgan to another success.
For Gloucestershire captain Michael Klinger it was a difficult evening. He was snaffled early on by Graham Wagg at cover off van der Gugten, then looked on as opening partner Hamish Marshall and No.4 Chris Dent both skied catches to mid-off.
At 30-3 and soon after, 79-5, Gloucestershire were rocking and Glamorgan were dreaming of a repeat of their performance against Surrey, when they rattled out their opponents for less than a hundred.
As it was, Gloucestershire sought some solace in Iain Cockbain’s battling 37 and Kieran Noema-Barnett’s belligerent innings of the same score.
Both made use of a short leg-side boundary, taking a particular liking to Dean Cosker’s left-arm spin and an off-night for Craig Meschede’s ever-reliable medium pacers.
Glamorgan kept pegging back the home side however and it was only a late flurry from overseas signing Andrew Tye which hoisted Gloucestershire to a defendable total.
Tye targeted the short boundary in smearing 16 off Michael Hogan’s final over, including a six off the final ball of the innings which narrowly evaded a back-peddling Rudolph at long-on.
Before long, Rudolph was putting that right with opening partner David Lloyd. But both fell in quick succession to leave Glamorgan rueing Tye’s final over heroics.
Lloyd fell to the Australian for 17 before Rudolph lost his off pole to Benny Howell’s stump-to-stumpers.
Together came Ingram and Donald and Glamorgan fans might have been suffering déjà vu when the pair renewed their acquaintance in the middle.
They put on 91 versus Hampshire last Friday, 89 this time. Ingram was the aggressor in-chief, punishing Gloucestershire for bowling too many full tosses with five thunderous sixes.
There was controversy when the umpires ordered Tye out of the Gloucestershire attack for a second full-bunger above waist-height.
He was replaced by Dent, whose loopy off-spinners were shown no mercy by the relentless Ingram. The South African powered past 50 in just 24 balls and was eventually snared in the marshes by Klinger for a match-winning 64.
Glamorgan stuttered slightly in the latter stages but Ingram, together with his young padawan Donald (48*) had done enough.
Another limited overs victory for Glamorgan, secured when the young batsman drove stylishly over cover to spark wild celebrations in the pockets of travelling Welsh fans.
The threat of rain couldn’t dampen their spirits and neither could Gloucestershire. The Welsh white-ball juggernaut drives on.