22 Jul 2015 | Cricket
Ahead of the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final showdown between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire in Cardiff on Friday, the Welsh county struck an early blow this week over their nearest geographic rivals by convincingly winning the Second XI Championship clash at Panteg CC.
After winning the toss in the three day contest and deciding to bat first, Glamorgan's Aneurin Donald stole the limelight with a blistering 240 off 188 balls, ably supported by opener Jeremy Lawlor (84 off 134) and Ben Wright (52 off 58), to set up the victory.
Lawlor and Donald shared a 181-run partnership for the second wicket which Gloucestershire struggled to match as they suffered a 157 run defeat chasing 340 for victory as the two teams set up the match with early declarations.
Young spinner Kieran Bull took 6 wickets in the match, and there was also three wickets each for both Dewi Penrhyn Jones and Jack Murphy in batting friendly conditions.
It was quite a flat wicket so Bully (Kieran Bull), Jack Murphy and Dewi (Penrhyn Jones) all did well said Glamorgan coach Steve Watkin, and our fielding was good too which helped secure the win.
Aneurin's innings was exceptional, the best by an 18-year old I've ever seen and it completed a really good all-round performance by us in all three aspects of the game.
450 on the board certainly gave us something to bowl at, but there was a bit of rain about so it was an early declaration to set up the game .with 340 needed, but we did well to win it.