A D’Arcy Short-inspired Gloucestershire won the battle of two in-form sides at the start of this season’s Vitality Blast as Yorkshire‘s early three-game winning streak ended at Headingley.

A cross-group clash – the first ever T20 meeting between these two counties – saw Gloucestershire post 217 for 6 and successfully defend it to win for the third time in four, this by 56 runs.

Australian opener Short’s buccaneering 82 off 50 balls with five sixes was the feature of a Gloucestershire total which could have been more. T20 debutant Joe Phillips was excellent for 42 off 25, but Pakistan pace bowler Hasan Ali limited the damage with 3 for 29.

Sensational Short then struck twice in two balls with his left-arm wristspin as Yorkshire slipped to 101 for 5 in the 11th over and went on to finish with 4 for 30. Opener Adam Lyth‘s excellent 97 off 56 balls proved a consolatory effort in 161 all out.

While Short led the way, Miles Hammond and Phillips hit early leg-side sixes as Gloucestershire – having elected to bat, minus ex-Yorkshire captain Dawid Malan through injury – reached the 10-over mark at 86 for 1. On a true pitch, Short clubbed two more leg-side sixes as 20 came off Dom Bess’s offspin in the 11th, the left-hander reaching his first fifty of the campaign off 35 balls in the process.

Phillips was heading for similar when he was caught behind scooping against AJ Tye’s seam, leaving the score at 119 for 2 in the 13th over. That ended an 88-run partnership.

Short pressed on and shared 46 with captain Jack Taylor. But when both holed out to Hasan’s impressive seam in the 16th – 166 for 4 – Yorkshire were able to keep things in check, with the same man striking again late on.

Gloucestershire’s position was then strengthened inside two overs of their defence when Jonny Bairstow hoisted Ollie Price’s offspin to long-on. Will Luxton attacked in Price’s next over but miscued to mid-off for only 20 before left-arm pacer Duan Jansen’s first ball was a beauty and bowled James Wharton, with the White Rose 49 for 3 in the sixth.

Lyth took back-to-back leg-side sixes off Jansen later in the over and another off Short’s spin in the next, reaching his fifty in 26 balls as Yorkshire moved to 99 for 3 at halfway.

Short’s influence on this game increased when he got Moeen Ali caught at deep midwicket and Matthew Revis caught and bowled with successive deliveries in the next. And when he bowled Faheem Ashraf in the 13th, the White Rose were floundering on 115 for 6.

He later forced Bess to play on, and not even Lyth could save Yorkshire, who were finished off by two more Jansen wickets. Lyth was last to go to Marchant de Lange.