From a scholastic point of view, this week is half-term for Glamorgan’s cricketers in the NatWest T20 Blast with the Welsh county having the week off after playing seven out of their fourteen fixtures in the all-action competition . With Jacques Rudolph’s team at the top of the South Group, the mid-term comments would be most favourable.
Indeed, Glamorgan are the most successful side in this year’s T20 competition with their tally of five wins from seven games and, at +1.573, the best net run rate of any team in this year’s competition. By virtue of this superior rate, they are top of the South Group and ahead of Gloucestershire who also have 11 points after their victory on Sunday afternoon at Arundel against the Sussex Sharks, but have now played one game more than Glamorgan.
Dale Steyn has played a hand in Glamorgan’s success, taking 11 wickets at just 10.27 runs apiece, and the South African pace ace departs for the Caribbean with only Worcestershire’s Joe Leach, Durham’s Paul Coughlin and Gloucestershire’s Benny Howell having claimed more wickets. With Shaun Tait arriving from Australia, Glamorgan have a like-for-like replacement as far as their strategy is concerned for the remaining group matches in the NatWest T20 Blast.
As it currently stands, Glamorgan are on top of the South Group with five wins from their seven matches, and with 11 points already in the bag, they are level on points with Gloucestershire, and then two points ahead of Middlesex who are in third place, plus a three point lead over Sussex who occupy the fourth spot, as well as Surrey who languish in fifth place.
In previous seasons, the Welsh county have been scrapping for third or fourth place, but the results and individual performances in 2016 have lifted them to the top of the group, thereby making a quarter-final berth a most realistic achievement. In 2015, a minimum of 15 points were needed by the Essex Eagles to qualify for the last eight of the competition, so two more points in their next match against the Sussex Sharks at Cardiff on July 7th would take the Welsh county within touching distance of a quarter-final berth.
By the time the game with the Sharks takes place at The SSE SWALEC, other teams will have played at least one further match so the table may have taken a slightly different shape as teams look for a top two spot in the group. This is because the teams who finish in first and second place at the group stage getting a home quarter-final, with the team finishing first in the South Group meeting the team in fourth place in the North group – currently the Notts Outlaws – whilst the side in second place in the South Group meet the team who finishes third in the North Group.
So there’s plenty to play for after this week of rest, as Glamorgan’s cricketers go into the second half of their season in Twenty20 cricket on July 7th against the Sussex Sharks.