CHEPSTOW’S Ben Kellaway’s vital knock helped Glamorgan open their account in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with a nail-biting derby win over Gloucestershire.

In a 33-over rain-affected game at Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan set 187 for eight with 20-year-old Kellaway hitting a rescuing 65 not out preventing the hosts from collapsing at 27 for three.

Dan Douthwaite shined with the ball with four for 25 including the crucial wicket of James Bracey whose solo magnificence was in vain after striking a 79-ball 86.

The visitors looked set to win yet another Severnside derby before Douthwaite and Andy Gorvin combined to collapse Gloucestershire from 157 for five to 160 all out.

It gets the campaign off to a fine start for the 2021 winners, with a trip to the Oval on Sunday before Nottinghamshire are welcomed to Neath on Wednesday.

Gloucestershire won the toss and put the hosts into bat after the near three-hour delay. Jack Taylor’s decision proved to be a smart one initially with openers Josh Shaw and Ajeet Singh Dale making the most of early seam movement to get into the Glamorgan middle-order.

Will Smale was unable to continue his fine form from the record-breaking Vitality Blast game, bowled for a duck with Eddie Byrom dismissed for five just an over later to give the Gloucestershire openers a wicket apiece.

Captain Kiran Carlson and Billy Root managed to add some stability in the middle, forming a partnership of 49 from 41 balls, pouncing on some loose deliveries from Goodman and Zaman Akhter.

More wickets at bad times for the hosts had a par score looking far off once again when Carlson’s attempted fine cut found the edge and subsequently, Bracey’s gloves with a similar story for Root off Akhter, debutant Asa Tribe and his 20-year-old teammate Kellaway were forced to rebuild from 99 for five with only 14 overs to bat.

A catalogue of aesthetically pleasing drives through and over extra cover and straight past Akhter the highlights of the crucial Kellaway knock.

While it was Kellaway who starred, his partnerships with Tribe, Dan Douthwaite and Timm van der Gugten were just as important to ensure the hosts batted the full allocation of overs despite slow periods towards the back end of the innings.

Gloucestershire’s pursuit started in almost identical fashion to the hosts’ innings.

Timm van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy extracted the same movement as their Gloucestershire counterparts did in the early overs, claiming the wickets of Australian international Cameron Bancroft, Ollie Price and Miles Hammond for just 44.

It came down to Bracey’s excellence to keep the visitors in the contest. As Kellaway did for Glamorgan, the former England ‘keeper’s solo brilliance looked to take the game away from the hosts.

Glamorgan thought they would’ve not had luck on their side as a matter of millimetres separated a Bracey skier off Douthwaite and Tribe at deep square leg while on 61 and the score 99 for four.

When Charlesworth and Taylor both departed for supportive innings’ of 14 each, Graeme van Buuren attacked as the required run rate creeped above seven before three fours and a six took the pressure off Bracey in their quickfire 41-run partnership, leaving just 31 to get from the final six overs.

As the pendulum swung in the space of 11 balls from Douthwaite and Gorvin, the match slipped away from Gloucestershire to take them to the wrong side of a Severnside derby thriller after moments of brilliance saved the game in both County Championship and Blast affairs in 2024.