Hankins and Dent see off Glamorgan

Gloucestershire 265 for 2 (Hankins 85, Dent 80, Howell 68*) beat Glamorgan 264 (Marsha 57, Liddle 4-60, Worrall 3-47) by eight wickets
Scorecard

Gloucestershire gained an emphatic eight wicket victory against Glamorgan in their opening game in the Royal London Cup, as they easily chased down 265 with 10 balls remaining. Chris Dent and George Hankins, in only his fourth List A game, laid the foundation with a rousing opening partnership of 147 in 25 overs, Dent scoring 80, and Hankins a career-best 85. Benny Howell's unbeaten half-century then ensured there would be no relapse.

Gloucestershire were far superior throughout the day, as their bowlers stuck to their task by taking pace off the ball, and also restricting Glamorgan by allowing them to score only 63 runs, and to lose 6 wickets in the process, in the final ten overs.

When Glamorgan bowled, Michael Hogan and Graham Wagg apart, the other bowlers - notably Marchant De Lange - bowled far too short and the result was an avalanche of early boundaries.

Glamorgan' innings had been built around a 98- run partnership between Shaun Marsh and Colin Ingram, after Nick Selman had struck a composed 32, before he nicked Chris Liddle to the wicketkeeper from a ball that probably would have been called a wide.

Marsh and Ingram then settled into their productive partnership at five runs an over, before Ingram, leading Glamorgan for the first time in his new role as one day captain, pushed too early at Danny Worrall's medium pace to give short cover a simple catch.

Marsh appeared set for a big innings, before Worrall found some extra bounce and forced the Australian batsman to edge a lifting delivery to the wicketkeeper. Chris Cooke and David Lloyd then added a useful 75 for the fifth wicket, but from 239 for 5, Glamorgan lost their way, losing their last 5 wickets for 26, and were all out for 264 with 2 balls remaining.

With Gloucestershire needing to score at 5.3 runs an over, Hankins and Dent set off at a furious pace, with Hankins, a 21-year-old product of Millfield School, striking de Lange for three fours in his second over. Dent supported him well, but the Gloucestershire captain was dropped from a difficult caught and bowled chance to Timm Van Der Gugten, and then from a skier as Cooke and Lloyd left the ball for each other.

The opening pair quickly shared a 100- run partnership and such was their domination, that 15 fours were struck in the first 16 overs. Dent was eventually dismissed, when Wagg, after bowling four overs of seam, reverted to spin and his fifth ball was struck to fe Lange on the long on boundary.

With 39 needed, Hankins' excellent innings ended when he was leg before to Andrew Salter's off spin, but Benny Howell saw Gloucestershire home with an undefeated 68 from 81 balls.