Glamorgan travel to Chelmsford for their next match in the NatWest T20 Blast as they meet the Essex Eagles in a floodlit contest starting at 7.00pm on Friday, June 19th.
Glamorgan enjoyed good fortune last week with the weather as, after a masterly century from Jacques Rudolph and a disciplined bowling performance with a wet ball at Bristol on Friday evening, they secured a decent victory over Gloucestershire. Then on Saturday afternoon, the rains stayed away long enough at Cardiff for the Welsh county to record another win over Somerset, albeit by the slender margin of two runs under the DLS Method.
The net result was that Glamorgan rose up to third place in the group table, level on 8 points with four other teams, but with a net run rate which is inferior to leaders Gloucestershire and Hampshire. The Eagles, their opponents on Friday evening are currently in fourth place with the same points as Glamorgan but with a net run rate of -0.116 compared with Glamorgan's +0.076.
The Essex Eagles meet Kent - currently in fifth spot with 8 points as well - at Canterbury on Thursday evening so the winner of this contest will rise up to the top of the group by Friday evening when Glamorgan are the visitors at Chelmsford.
The Welsh county lost last summer at Chelmsford by four wickets despite posting what seemed to be a decent total of 189/6 with half-centuries from Jacques Rudolph and Jim Allenby who added 96 for the first wicket. Back in June 2010, Glamorgan had previously won on their first visit to Chelmsford for a Twenty20 match, with the Welsh county's victory charge being led by a pugnacious innings of 89 by Mark Cosgrove, with the Australian southpaw launching the run chase with a series of withering blows as they romped to a seven wicket win.
It was another cricketer from the Southern Hemisphere who stole the headlines in the contest at Chelmsford in July 2011 with New Zealander Tim Southee taking 6/16 including a hat-trick before Owais Shah posted 60 as Essex reached their target with five wickets in hand.
The two sides have already this summer in the Twenty20 competition with the Eagles winning the contest at the SSE SWALEC by five wickets, and Jacques Rudolph and his team will be looking to make amends for this reverse as they continue their quest of a quarter-final place in this year's competition.