THE appearance of Kevin Pietersen may have added gloss to Gloucestershire’s Friends Provident t20 fixture against Surrey at The King’s School, but the crowd were left in awe of a fine innings by Ian Cockbain in only his second match in the shortest format of the game.

His brilliant 78 helped Gloucestershire recover from 26-3 to score 168 as they recorded their first win in the competition this season by a 46-run margin.

Surrey were always a threat while Pietersen was around and the key moment in their innings came when he was caught magnificently by Cockbain for 30, sparking the Lions to collapse to 122 all out.

After earlier rain, Surrey opted to bowl first to try and exploit any dampness in the pitch after winning the toss, and they made early headway.

They were assisted by Gloucestershire, though, Kevin O’Brien being run out after Hamish Marshall blocked out a delivery by Yasir Arafat, who then kicked it into the stumps when a suicidal single was attempted.

Jade Dernbach, who was named in England’s squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka, deceived Kane Williamson with a slower ball to give Jason Roy a simple catch, and then clean bowled Hamish Harshall, leaving the Gladiators on 26-3.

Alex Gidman and Cockbain did a fine job of rebuilding Gloucestershire’s innings, putting on 59 before the skipper skied a Gareth Batty delivery to Rory Hamilton-Brown to fall for 28.

Cockbain then let loose and in the 15th over he hit Chris Schofield for two consecutive sixes, the latter clearing the leg side boundary to bring up his half-century from 35 balls.

He then hit three more maximums in the next three overs, before being caught attempting another big hit at long-off by Pietersen from Dernbach’s bowling in the penultimate over.

Taylor offered good support in the 71-run stand with Cockbain and finished on 32 not out.

Ed Young was bowled by a Dirk Nannes full toss in the final over but Gloucestershire’s 168-6 looked like a good score.

Kane Williamson opened the bowling and clean bowled Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown for 0.

Steven Davies charged down the wicket to hit Muralitharan’s second ball for six but nicked a David Payne delivery to Richard Coughtrie in the next over to leave Surrey on 24-2.

Pietersen survived a close run out shout and an lbw appeal from Young but helped get Surrey back in the game, sharing 47 with Zander de Bruyn as they reached 71-1 just over the halfway stage.

However, when Young bowled a short ball, de Bruyn took the bait and was caught on the leg side boundary by Williamson for 18 and in the next over Pietersen was caught superbly by Cockbain diving to his left in the deep off Williamson.

Sri Lankan wizard Muralitharan deceived Roy, who was bowled, and Chris Taylor made a spectacular catch to remove Chris Schofield and give Young his second wicket before Payne bowled Tom Maynard.

Coughtrie made smart stumpings off Muralitharan and Payne to get rid of Arafat and Batty respectively and Saxelby finished things off when he bowled Dernbach in the first ball of the last over.