Craig Spearman believes the Twenty20 Cup tide has turned in Gloucestershire's favour after last night's comprehensive win at Somerset.

In a surprisingly low-scoring encounter, Spearman's innings of 51 off 29 deliveries proved crucial as Gloucestershire CCC successfully defended 162 for eight.

It was their first victory in this season's competition, coming off the back of defeats at Worcestershire and Glamorgan, and the veteran New Zealander admitted it was crucial to have momentum on their side.

"If we hadn't won we would really have been pushing uphill in the group, so we're back in it," he said. "I knew they (Somerset) had played on the same wicket in the previous game and 185 was the score, so that was in my mind when I was batting.

"That would have been a good score, but I knew 162 would take a lot of chasing and the first six overs were the key.

"We bowled beautifully and they only scored at just under a run a ball, so it was a really good performance."

Gloucestershire surprised many by playing two spinners in Richard Dawson and Vikram Banerjee – the unfortunate Gemaal Hussain dropping out – but it proved to be the right decision.

Spearman said: "Because it was a used wicket I felt the spinners could win the game for us, and they bowled beautifully."

With successive home games to come, beginning with the Worcestershire rematch on Monday, confidence is high at Nevil Road.

"Twenty20 is so hard to practice for and anything can happen on the day," added Spearman.

"It's not a competition where you can expect to win 80 percent of your games, whatever team you are, and one win from three is not a bad start.

"If we can win two of our three games next week, getting the ratio back to 50-50, it will set us up nicely."

Meanwhile, Somerset coach Andy Hurry admitted his side will need to play straighter against spin when Glamorgan visit Taunton on Monday.

He said: "Today, for some reason, we went 180 degrees away from our plans when playing spin. I think we have to have the intent, especially at Taunton of playing straight.

"We have worked in the winter about playing down the ground and our sweep both sides of the wicket. Today our emphasis was too much on hitting it square."