Cooper's explosive batting thwarted by rain

Glamorgan 43 for 1 beat Somerset 159 for 5 (Cooper 84*) by two runs - D/L method>
Scorecard

A brilliant unbeaten 84 from Somerset batsman Tom Cooper proved in vain as Glamorgan won their rain-curtailed NatWest T20 Blast match by two runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in Cardiff on Saturday.

Cooper smashed six sixes and five fours in his 40-ball innings and a sixth-wicket stand of 74 from 4.4 overs with Lewis Gregory helped Somerset to 159 for 5 from their 20 overs.

Glamorgan had reached 43 for 1 when the rain arrived in the sixth over of their reply, which was enough to give them a two-run Duckworth-Lewis victory.

Overcast skies and a damp outfield combined to make scoring difficult inside the Somerset Powerplay and Glamorgan bowlers Michael Hogan and Wayne Parnell were producing swing and seam which made boundaries very hard to come by.

At the end of the first six overs Somerset were 19 for 2, having lost both openers. Marcus Trescothick departed in the first over and Jim Allenby in the fifth as Parnell returned figures of 2 for 16 off his full allocation.

Hogan was even more economical, conceding 14 runs off his four overs. Craig Meschede, on loan with Glamorgan from Somerset, then picked up with the wicket of Peter Trego who under-edged a ball through to the wicketkeeper.

That brought together James Hildreth and Cooper, who put on 47 runs in 5.3 overs. When Hildreth departed having made 28 from 31 deliveries, Cooper played a lone hand at the death as he plundered no fewer than six maximums in his blistering innings.

A cameo from Gregory saw him score 16 as he combined with Cooper as they scored freely in the closing stages of Somerset's innings. It was an incredible display of clean hitting from Cooper who went from 27 to 84 in just 18 balls.

He was particularly brutal in his treatment of the bowling of Meschede and Graham Wagg, who could not find a way to keep him from scoring boundaries at will.

The fielding from Glamorgan became ragged under this onslaught as Meschede, Hogan and Jacques Rudolph all dropped catches, although the latter two were very tough.

Having struggled with the ball and in the field, Meschede managed to make a telling contribution with the bat.

Opening the batting with Rudolph, he got Glamorgan off to a flying start with 18 runs off just eight balls before he was caught in the deep off the bowling of Sohail Tanvir.

That quickfire innings was enough to see Glamorgan get ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis target and stay there when the rain arrived.