Having secured a home quarter-final last night in the rain at Hove, Glamorgan complete their round of group matches in the NatWest T20 Blast with a visit to Chelmsford to meet the Essex Eagles in a floodlit contest on Friday, July 29th.
Last night’s results mean that *Glamorgan and Gloucestershire have secured the home quarter-finals in the South Group, and if Glamorgan win tonight and the West Country side are beaten by Middlesex at Bristol, Glamorgan will meet the team finishing fourth in the North Group at The SSE SWALEC. A Gloucestershire victory tonight would mean that Glamorgan play the third-placed team in the North Group, irrespective of what happens at Chelmsford.
Chelmsford has not been a happy hunting ground for the past few years for Glamorgan in Twenty20 cricket with the Eagles having won the last three encounters. They were victorious last summer by 16 runs in a match, which like the earlier encounter at Cardiff, had seen Ravi Bopara and Shaun Tait take centre-stage as the England international struck a cultured half-century before the Australian paceman claimed three wickets. Colin Ingram did his best to manufacture a victory for the Welsh county, but at the end of the day, his innings of 70 was not enough to secure victory.
The Welsh county also lost in 2014 after posting what appeared to be a decent total of 189/6 with half-centuries from Jacques Rudolph and Jim Allenby who had added 96 for the first wicket. But the Essex batsmen eased to victory, much to the delight of the home crowd. Their victory in July 2011 had been underpinned by New Zealander Tim Southee who took 6/16 including a hat-trick before Owais Shah posted 60 as Essex eased to their target with five wickets in hand.
Glamorgan’s sole victory at Chelmsford in the all-action competition came in June 2010. Their victory charge was 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.