Limited overs captain Jacques Rudolph will lead an unchanged squad against Sussex Sharks tomorrow in the Welsh county’s first ever match at Arundel Castle.
Glamorgan didn’t start this year’s NatWest T20 Blast in the way they wanted yesterday evening in Cardiff in front of a 7,000 crowd, as they came up against a very well equipped Hampshire team and now face second south coast opposition tomorrow.
Glamorgan have previously played red and white ball matches at Hove, Hastings, Horsham, Eastbourne, Chichester and Worthing against Sussesx, but it’s the first trip to the picturesque ground set in the shadow of Arundel Castle for Glamorgan and most of the team’s players.
Rudolph who retires in September, is confident Glamorgan can repeat last year’s success after reaching the quarter finals of the competition last season.
“I want to enjoy the remainder of the season as much as I can,” said Jacques “and what better way to end than to get to Finals Day and give our loyal supporters something to cheer about over the next couple of months.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my career over the past twenty years, and with basically the same squad as last year there is no reason why we should not do well again.
Kiran Carlson and David Lloyd were both recalled to the team last night and will be hoping to make more of an impact if called upon again whilst Craig Meschede was waiting in the wings last night after also returning to the first team squad.
Chris Cooke who missed a dozen one-day games in 2016 has the gloves back this season and it was his partnership with Graham Wagg, who top scored with 50 against Hampshire after missing most of this season’s campaign through injury, which at one stage had Glamorgan in the hunt last night.
“I don’t think many of our players have been to Arundel and I’ve not played there for a few years,” said Wagg ahead of tomorrow’s game. “We’ll head up there nice and positive, as a group we’ve prepared well and we’ve proved over a number of years that we are good white ball team.”
Although Glamorgan are without a specialist T20 overseas player, Rudolph believes the addition of Marchant De Lange for this year’s competition will be important for Glamorgan’s hopes of progress.
”Marchant is sure to make an impression for us. He has a very good one day record and will be a considerable asset to our one day squad.”
“We learned last season that we can’t be worrying about big names in other teams,” said Rudolph. ”We will concentrate on our game, play to our strengths and abilities and give 100% all the time.”
Glamorgan (13-man) squad: David Lloyd, Aneurin Donald, Jacques Rudolph (c), Colin Ingram, Kiran Carlson, Chris Cooke (wk), Graham Wagg, Craig Meschede, Andrew Salter, Owen Morgan, Marchant De Lange, Timm van der Gugten, Michael Hogan
New Zealand’s Ross Taylor who scored more than 400 runs in the competition last season captains the Sharks for the first time following his appointment last month
Gates at Arundel Castle open at 12 noon and the advice is to get to the ground early with a big crowd anticipated.
Sussex (13-man) squad: Ross Taylor (c), Chris Jordan, Will Beer, Ben Brown (wk), Danny Briggs, Chris Nash, Luke Wright, Stiaan van Zyl, Laurie Evans, Phil Salt, David Wiese
George Garton, Jofra Archer