Hughes knock too much for Glam

Phil Hughes showed the Australians what they are missing by lighting up Worcestershire's Friends Life t20 campaign in a 19-run victory over Glamorgan at New Road.

While his countrymen were slipping to defeat by England in the one-day international at Lord's, Hughes, the 23-year-old left-hander, thrashed an unbeaten 87 from 57 balls as Worcestershire accelerated to 164 for 5. Hughes' third half century in four T20 innings for his third English county proved to be decisive when Glamorgan were pegged back to 145 for 6 despite an unbeaten 40 by Stewart Walters.

Glamorgan's ploy in bowling first seemed to be paying off when they claimed two wickets in the opening three overs. Moeen Ali's carve to point gave former Worcestershire paceman Simon Jones his first wicket at New Road in four years and then Vikram Solanki drove James Harris straight to cover. Harris thus achieved the rare distinction of a wicket-maiden but the tide began to turn Worcestershire's way when Hughes and fellow left-hander James Cameron took 17 runs from his final over.

The third-wicket pair put on 75 in 10 overs before Walters held a good catch at long-off from Cameron (31) and Hughes stepped up the pace with two sixes in an over from Will Owen in completing a 39-ball 50.

Jones completed a personally pleasing return of 3 for 29 when Wallace held catches from Gareth Andrew and Alexei Kervezee in three balls but Hughes signed off with two more sixes off Owen. He also hit seven fours in his highest innings in the shortest format.

For Glamorgan to be in contention, they needed to live up to their pre-tournament claim to have one of the stronger batting line-ups in the competition. They started off at seven an over in the Powerplay only for wickets to fall as soon as Jack Shantry bowled Wallace for 25.

Moeen took 2 for 7 in his first 18 balls but South African Chris Cooke hoisted three sixes in the offspinner's final over as Glamorgan hinted at a spectacular recovery from a sorry-looking 57 for 5. A rapid stand of 52 with Walters reduced the target to 60 from five overs but there was too much to do when Cooke was caught at long on off David Lucas after making 32 from 14 balls.