Notts Outlaws continued their upturn in fortunes in the Clydesdale Bank 40 with a keenly contested victory over Glamorgan under lights at Trent Bridge.
It was fitting that captain Chris Read finished unbeaten on 68 after a stellar knock that steered Notts to a deserved win with 11 balls to spare.
"I was very pleased with that because all of our Clydesdale Bank 40 matches are must-win if we are to make progress," said Read.
"Paul Franks has been having a fantastic time in this competition because he's bowling the ball in nice areas and getting the rewards with plenty of wickets." - Chris Read
"It's always nice to be there at the end and to walk off having contributed to a win for Notts.
"The bowlers did a lot of things right tonigh, particularly by taking wickets early on which puts the batting side under pressure. Paul Franks has been having a fantastic time in this competition because he's bowling the ball in nice areas and getting the rewards with plenty of wickets.
"Darren played very nicely and we were a bit surprised when he got out because we all thought that ball was there to be hit but he picked out mid-on but he was solid enough considering he's been in the country for less than 24 hours."
Cooke top-scored for the visitors with 75 but was caught on the boundary by Riki Wessels from the final ball of the innings as he hit out attempting to find a final boundary.
The all action finale to the Glamorgan effort had been preceded by an eventful first over in which Darren Pattinson bowled five wides, conceded 13 runs and saw debutant Darren Bravo hold on to a one-handed catch to see off Gareth Rees.
Allenby (1) gave Pattinson his second wicket and with Paul Franks accounting for Walters, Petersen and O’Shea in his six-over spell, Glamorgan found themselves in trouble at 64-5.
Cooke prospered though alongside Mark Wallace (21) and Graham Wagg (23) to post 198-9 from a rain reduced allocation of 35 overs.
All eyes were on overseas debutant Darren Bravo who joined Riki Wessels following the dismissal of fellow new boy Karl Turner whose first ball four proved to be his solitary scoring act.
Bravo looked assured with confident strokes yielding five fours before he chipped one to Wagg at mid-on. Samit Patel (18) quickly followed bringing together Chris Read and Scott Elstone who shared a match-winning partnership.
Read hit consecutive boundaries to accelerate the rate, bringing up the fifty partnership with a six and reaching his own half-century from 53 balls.
Notts wobbled though with Steven Mullaney (9) and Paul Franks (1) departing to reduce the home side to 174-7.
Notts remain in the hunt for the best runners-up spot and could conceivably move into first position in Group C if Somerset suffer defeats to Glamorgan and Notts on Sunday and Monday.