With Gloucestershire and the Sussex Sharks losing on Sunday afternoon, Glamorgan’s thrilling one-run victory against Somerset at Taunton has clinched a quarter-final spot for the Welsh county, and if they defeat Middlesex in the final group game at The SSE SWALEC on Friday night, Jacques Rudolph and his men will guarantee a home quarter-final, although depending on other results this week, they may have already done enough as the victory over Somerset has taken them back to the top of the table.
A first appearance at Finals Day since 2004 is a possibility for the third time in four seasons after Glamorgan equalled their record for their narrowest-ever winning margin in the competition, as they emulated their efforts against the Kent Spitfires at Tunbridge Wells in 2015 by winning a crackerjack of a contest by a single run at Taunton on Sunday afternoon.
Yet, a quarter of an hour earlier, and with the home side needing 22 from 18 balls and Johan Myburgh unbeaten on 87, it looked as if the West Country side were going to win the game. But Marchant de Lange emulated Michael Hogan in earlier matches as the Springbok fast bowler returned to deliver a masterly closing spell, conceding just three runs from eleven balls besides claiming two decisive wickets. Then with six needed from the last ball, he prevented Peter Trego from ending the game in the grand manner, as the muscular all-rounder could only hit the ball along the ground to the ropes at extra-cover.
De Lange’s nerveless efforts began in his penultimate over which cost just a couple of runs as he firstly ran out Jim Allenby as the Somerset captain tried to sneak a single against his former employers only for the South African to nonchalantly pick up the ball in his follow-through and make a direct hit at the bowler's end with Allenby a yard short of his ground. Two balls later, de Lange re-arranged Myburgh’s stumps with a Yorker after the diminutive batsman had done his best to keep his team in the hunt.
Having reached fifty from 33 balls, Myburgh was undone by a full length thunderbolt, but this was not the end of the drama as Roelof van der Merwe and the vastly experienced Trego joined forces with 20 still needed from a dozen balls. After scampering a series of one’s and two’s against Michael Hogan, van der Merwe unleashed a massive pull for six over square-leg as Somerset entered the last over still needing eight to win.
Cue de Lange for a superb final over which saw Trego fail to connect with the first delivery before on-driving the second for a single. A leg-bye followed from the next delivery before Trego heaved and missed again. Trego then tamely drove the penultimate ball straight back to the bowler before smearing the last to extra-cover as Glamorgan moved back to the top of table and secured a place in the last eight of the competition.