Gloucester Gladiators 148-6 (20 overs)
Glamorgan Dragons 151-4 (19.1 overs)
Glamorgan won by 6 wickets
The wholesome balanced diet that is real cricket has now been suspended for nearly 2 summer months leaving cricket followers to gorge themselves unhealthily on the cricketing equivalent of McDonalds. A record T20 crowd of 7,200 went home happy as Glamorgan eased to victory on a beautiful balmy evening at the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff. A more than usually multicultural crowd was boosted by a large number of family groups, every child seeming to relish smacking those irritating American inflatable clappers together and leaving many of the older spectators grinding their teeth and dreaming of the return of corporal punishment,
Alex Gidman, Gloucester captain, won the toss and opted to bat first. Venerable off-spinner Robert Croft was a surprising but welcome addition to Glamorgan’s T20 team, and opened the bowling, following the increasingly widely-used tactic of employing spin bowling during the power plays. The crowd was looking forward to an early view of their new acquisition – the world’s fastest bowler Shaun Tait of Australia – but had to wait as young Welsh pace bowler James Harris opened at the other end.
However, Tait was given the ball for the 3rd over, to rousing cheers. From only his second delivery Porterfield was badly dropped at point by the usually reliable Glamorgan captain, Jamie Dalrymple. Tait followed up with a hostile bouncer which Porterfield only just managed to evade, before he tamely offered a catch to Gareth Rees at cover, with the total at 20-1. Gidman safely defended the last 2 balls of an eventful over, bowled at speeds in excess of 90mph.
The rustic hoiks encouraged by T20 cricket were entertaining and amusing a crowd increasingly bleating their appreciation as Gidman struck a succession of boundaries to cow corner. At the end of the Gloucester power play the score was a healthy 50-1. Gidman continued to play streaky shots before falling for a frankly ugly 25 to a catch to Maynard at long off, from Croft’s canny bowling.
Dalrymple was ringing the changes, the first 9 overs being shared among 6 different bowlers, his strategy clearly being to prevent the visiting batsmen from settling against any one bowler. Hamish Marshall, one of three New Zealanders in the visiting team, seemed to take over where Gidman had left off, edging the ball frequently, making ugly heaves at the ball or futile attempts at improvisation, but Glamorgan were bowling well, and were difficult to get away.
At the half way stage Gloucester were 77-2, but then Franklin hit a beautiful 6 to long on off Cosker, and repeated the feat just 2 balls later, 17 coming off the 11th over, and Cosker had been hit out of the attack. Intelligent one day bowler Jim Allenby then got Franklin to edge to wicketkeeper Mark Wallace for a well played 42. Allenby followed that success by bowling Butler for a duck in the same over, leaving Gloucester at 94-4. Only a single taken off the last ball of the over prevented Allenby achieving the extremely rare T20 feat of a double wicket maiden.
An appeal for a run out was then referred to the third umpire, and there was some confusion when S4C who are covering Glamorgan’s T20 campaign live this season, put up the Welsh language “heb fod mas” (rather than “not out”) on the giant TV screen, leaving some people in the dark as to whether or not the appeal had been successful.
Glamorgan’s fielding was uncharacteristically shoddy, dropped catches and elementary fielding mistakes costing both wickets and runs. Mark Wallace conceded 4 byes and then 2 needless overthrows turned a 2 into a very welcome 5 for the visitors. However Tait rescued the home side by taking a catch on the fine leg boundary, giving Allenby his 3rd wicket.
Marshall was eventually caught by Cosker off the superb Robert Croft for a 27 which rivalled even Gidman’s innings for ugliness. Croft’s final figures were 2-21 from 4 typically wily overs. Indeed, it was only the tight bowling of Croft, Allenby and Tait that was keeping the home side in the game, as Gloucester were severely restricted in the final overs of the innings.Tait made a highly impressive debut, taking 1-19 from 4 fast overs that the visitors found impossible to attack. But Allenby was the star bowler, bowling the final over and finishing with 3-23 from his spell. Gloucester had faded towards the end thanks to the tight bowling, and totalled a merely moderate 148-6 from their 20 overs.
Cosgrove and Allenby started the Glamorgan innings brightly, before the former was bowled for 11, making an unnecessarily wild swipe and disappointing the crowd which had looked forward to his usual onslaught. Indeed the crowd was growing more raucous as the game progressed and the bar takings rose. But Allenby and Dalrymple now played cautiously, attempting to build a solid foundation for a later run chase with wickets intact. Allenby did hit some stunning early off drives for 4, but the home captain seemed to be digging himself a hole and found it difficult to score runs at all.
Unlike Glamorgan who had turned early to their spin bowlers, the visitors used only pace bowling in the power play, restricting the home team to 46-1 after 6 overs.
Dalrymple’s innings was almost painful to watch, even when he attempted to open his shoulders he seemed to find it impossible to hit the ball off the square. By the half way stage Glamorgan on 65-1 were beginning to fall significantly behind the run rate, although they had succeeded until now in their strategy of not losing wickets.
Allenby stroked a thrilling straight 6 into the River Taff from the bowling of ex-England international Jon Lewis, but Glamorgan were now 19 runs behind where the visitors had been at the same stage. After a long stay at the crease, Dalrymple finally hit his first boundary off opposing captain Gidman’s slow medium bowling, although this was only thanks to a dreadful misfield from Porterfield at midwicket. The following ball the same unfortunate fielder thrilled a cruelly jeering crowd when he missed a relatively simple catch offered by Dalrymple.
Glamorgan were now prepared to take more risks in an effort to increase the run rate, and Dalrymple arguably threw away his wicket, needlessly giving a catch to Kadeer Ali at square leg off Lewis’s bowling. He had made only 21 from 31 balls faced. Tom Maynard followed soon afterwards, feebly lofting a shot to backward point, and having lost these wickets, Glamorgan were no longer in a strong position, being well behind the required rate at 89-3.
Allenby was still playing superbly, however, scoring boundaries off proper cricket shots, and reached his 50 from only 41 balls. Gareth Rees was just beginning to play some innovative shots of his own, when Allenby was bowled attempting a reverse sweep, having made 54 off 44 balls.
Rees then made a succession of shots – both deliberate late cuts and accidental edges – scoring heavily to a point virtually straight behind the visiting wicketkeeper, where no fielder was positioned. His rapid scoring brought Glamorgan back into contention when the fall of 3 quick wickets seemed to have cost them the game.
At the start of the final 3 overs Glamorgan required an eminently gettable 23 runs. Rees had now taken charge of finishing the innings for the home team, and looked in control of proceedings. In the penultimate over Brown struck a fine straight 6 which this time just failed to reach the Taff, and Glamorgan were in sight of victory. He then edged the ball to third man for 4, and suddenly only 2 runs were needed for victory from the final over. Rees, who had played an excellent innings, then finished the game off the first ball of the 20th over, stroking a beautiful 4 through mid on to take his personal score to 32 not out, and Glamorgan to a comfortable victory in their first game in this potentially lucrative competition.
Peter Davies
at the Swalec Stadium Cardiff
