It was also going to take something very special to top Glamorgan’s victory last Sunday against the Sussex Sharks in the tranquil setting of Arundel Castle and Colin Ingram’s whirlwind century from 46 balls.
But seven days later, amidst the brick and mortar of London’s eastern suburbs, the left-hander and his colleagues shrugged off any tiredness following a late-night journey from Cardiff to produce one of the most extraordinary run chases in Twenty20 history in a game which saw 443 runs being scored at a helter-skelter pace and a total of 29 sixes being struck at the compact Chelmsford ground.
Ingram’s career-best 114 saw him become the first Glamorgan batsman to score two Twnety20 hundreds in a season as he completed his fourth successive hundred in white ball cricket against Essex, following his pair of hundreds last summer at Chelmsford in the 50 and 20 overs competition, plus his fine hundred earlier this season in the Royal London One-Day Cup at Cardiff.
His efforts saw Glamorgan, plus another cameo from Chris Cooke and the upper-cut fro six by Craig Meschede to win the game off the last ball saw the Welsh county complete their highest run-chase in the competition, eclipsing their 194-2 against Somerset at Taunton, 2004 when Ian Thomas’ Club record 116* - which for the second successive weekend came under serious threat of being broken – propelled them to an eight wicket victory. In fact, only one side had successfully chased a larger total in the domestic competition with Luke Wright helping Sussex to defeat Essex after they had made 225-3, also at Chelmsford in 2014.
The match aggregate of 443 runs was the second highest in Glamorgan’s history and overall the fifth highest in the domestic competition in the UK, surpassed by:
455-13 Surrey v Glamorgan at The Kia Oval, 2015
451-6 Essex v Sussex at Chelmsford, 2014
451-14 Somerset v Kent at Taunton, 2015
449-9 Worcestershire v Northamptonshire at Kidderminster, 2007
443-9 Essex v Glamorgan at Chelmsford, 2017
The match aggregate of 29 sixes was also a domestic best in this country, beating the 26 made in the match, listed above, between Glamorgan and Surrey at The Oval in 2015.
So what next? You can find out in person as Glamorgan – currently in second place in the table - welcome both the Sussex Sharks and the Essex Eagles next weekend to their headquarters at The SSE SWALEC, meeting the Sharks on Friday night and the Eagles next Sunday afternoon.
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