Gloucestershire blew Warwickshire away at Bristol after posting a seemingly below-par 121 all out in 16.1 overs, at that stage the lowest score of the evening by a distance. But without the injured David Payne, player of the Match Duan Jansen, Marco’s twin brother and fellow left-armer, looked extremely threatening and at the other end countryman Marchant de Lange also showed good pace to condemn the Bears to a 47-run defeat in a game where only 195 runs were scored.

Put into bat, Gloucestershire got a succession of starts without any batter managing to play the innings of substance the home side would have thought they needed in order to set a defendable total.

Seven catches in the ten dismissals saw the home side subside after a promising start, with just two extras – both leg byes – a sign of Warwickshire’s discipline with the ball, the ageless Oliver Hannon-Dalby getting things going alongside the equally ageless Chris Woakes, with two early scalps before the spinners Tazeem Ali and Usman Tariq – showcasing his distinctive stop-start style in the Vitality Blast for the first time – took 6 for 42 off 7 overs, Ali’s share being 4 for 25.

Six scores of between 10 and 25 – the latter made by Ben Charlesworth – summed up the innings, some lovely shots being played alongside plenty of loose ones that had the Warwickshire fielders on a permanent state of high alert. At 81 for 3 off 10, the match seemed in the balance but the introduction of Ali saw the pendulum swing towards the visitors, looking to break their habit of being losing quarter-finalists, a fate that has befallen them in each of the past five seasons.

When Warwickshire batted the healthy crowd might have expected a comfortable and controlled chase but the pace of the two South Africans, along with some injudicious shot selection, had all the batters in trouble, with nobody scoring more than Vaansh Jani’s 21and only two batters reaching double figures and a procession of wickets keeping the home fans happy.

The South Africans combined for 6 for 34 in their seven overs and Craig Miles took three cheap wickets to end the game with barely 30 overs having been sent down on a surface that did not seem to that did not seem to warrant the flood of wickets that took place.