Glamorgan's Parfitt shines in win against Glos

Women's Vitality Blast League Two, Bristol

Glamorgan 184-6 (20 ov): L Parfitt 86, Jeanes 38; Geach 3-24

Gloucestershire 119-6 (20): Geach 32*; Porter 2-24, Jackson 2-35

Glamorgan won by 65 runs

Scorecard

Glamorgan captain Lauren Parfitt led from the front with 86 off 58 balls as they beat Gloucestershire in by 65 runs in their opening game of the T20 Blast second tier.

Fellow opener Daisy Jeanes hit a rapid 38, while Emily Geach's 3-24 was by some way the best bowling as Glamorgan piled up 184-6 in sun-soaked Bristol.

Gloucestershire could not get near the rate required as Nicole Reid took 1-13 in four overs and finished on 119-6, with two wickets each for Eve Jackson and Gemma Porter.

Geach (32 not out) and Melissa Story (29) added 52 for the sixth wicket to limit the margin.

It was a seventh straight win of the season for Glamorgan as they prepare for life at professional level in 2027.

Glamorgan went into the game unbeaten in six One Day Cup and T20 County Cup matches, while Gloucestershire only had their two County Cup wins to relish.

Glamorgan lost Scotland all-rounder Megan McColl to injury in the warm-up, while Gloucestershire gave a debut to new signing, former Somerset batter Amelie Munday.

On a baking afternoon, Jeanes and Parfitt raced to 55 in the powerplay, Jeanes leading the way as the pair took advantage of some sloppy fielding from the hosts.

She had clubbed eight fours in her 38 off 26, with the stand worth 74, by the time Geach induced a catch to point.

Despite two more wickets for Geach, Parfitt then took control as she blasted 13 fours to maintain Glamorgan's momentum until she lofted to long-on in the 18th over.

Set a demanding run-rate of 9.25 to win, Gloucestershire were restricted to 37 for one in the powerplay, despite several chances going down, with Meg Ahearne caught at cover off off-spinner Porter.

Rebecca Halliday (17) and Munday (20) made some headway before seamer Jackson had Munday well caught at long-on by Jeanes and took out Halliday's middle stump.

With just 50 on the board at half-way, it was largely a question of earning some respectability as Story and the hard-hitting Geach put together a half-century stand which only ended when Story was stumped off the final ball.

Glamorgan have a rapid turn-round to host Derbyshire 24 hours later, while Gloucestershire travel to Kent on 31 May.

Glamorgan coach Rachel Priest told BBC Sport Wales:

"Lauren's doing an amazing job for us at the top of the innings and when you get off to a start like that, 55 off the powerplay, you can't ask for much more.

"She's in a purple patch and it sets everyone else off with the right tone. We ask Daisy to be nice and aggressive, particularly in T20, and it comes naturally to her.

"Overall I was satisfied in the field though there were some chances we missed, in a different game we might have been made to pay and we want to keep raising our standards.

"The exciting thing about this group is that we're not at 100% performance yet, putting both halves of the game together, but I'm really pleased with how the girls are going."