Surrey defeated Glamorgan by 24 runs under the DLS Method in their Vitality Blast match at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
The 48 hours leading up to this final group match have seen a series of important changes to the group table as Surrey defeated Hampshire at The Oval beat last night the Sussex Sharks beat Gloucestershire at Bristol. As a result, Glamorgan have slipped back to fifth place knowing that the Sharks will qualify if they made it three wins in a row by winning their match against Middlesex tonight at Hove, with the Welsh county’s only hopes of qualifying now resting with a defeat for Sussex and a victory over Surrey.
The Welsh county fielded an unchanged line-up so Craig Meschede and Aneurin Donald opened the batting after Colin Ingram had won the toss, with Donald square-driving Jade Dernbach for four in the opening over before Meschede on-drove him for a second boundary. Donald then steered Morne Morkel’s first ball to third man before lofting him over extra-cover for six. Later in the over he flat-batted him to fine-leg for another four.
But with the total on 32, Donald scooped Dernbach high to backward square-leg where Nic Maddinson took a good tumbling catch. With Ingram as his new partner, Meschede clipped the next two deliveries to fine-leg for four before the captain cover drove and under-edged Rikki Clarke for successive fours. Meschede then brought up the fifty in the fourth over by glancing Clarke to fine-leg, whilst Ingram then dispatched Curran over mid-off and deep square-leg for a pair of massive sixes. But the young all-rounder gained revenge as with the last ball of the over he found the edge of Ingram’s bat and a diving Gareth Batty at short third-man pouched the catch.
With Glamorgan on 67/2 Kiran Carlson joined Meschede who on-drove Morkel before becoming the third batsman to depart in the powerplay as he edged the former Test bowler into the wicket-keeper’s gloves. Carlson responded by nurdling Morkel for four before mowing Will Jacks to mid-wicket. His next four was far more elegant as he punched Jacks through extra-cover with Glamorgan reaching 99/3 at the halfway stage.
Carlson then clipped Clarke to fine-leg for four before caressing the next delivery in the air over extra-cover for another four but next delivery the young tyro holed out on the mid-wicket boundary with the Welsh county on 112/4. Lloyd was joined by Chris Cook and pulled Batty’s final delivery for four – the only boundary in the veteran spinner’s four-over spell.
Morkel was also quite frugal in his closing spell as the fifth wicket pair accumulated largely in one’s and two’s until Cooke launched Clarke over the River Stand for six before Lloyd hooked Dernbach over mid-wicket for another maximum and to see Glamorgan past 150. Lloyd also scooped the bowler for four before being caught at backward point as Graham Wagg joined Cooke with Glamorgan on 159/5. After two singles, Wagg holed out at long-on, but Cooke cross-batted Dernbach for four in his final over before cover-driving his last delivery for another four. However, Cooke was run out attempting a bye in the final over before Smith holed out at mid-off. Salter though pulled the penultimate ball for six as
Glamorgan ended on 183/8 as light drizzle started.
The resumption was delayed until 8.30pm without any overs being lost with Rory Burns clipping Ruaidhri Smith’s opening delivery for four before Aaron Finch did the same to Michael Hogan. Burns then pulled the Australian to mid-wicket for another rasping four. Finch then plonked Timm van der Gugten over long-on for six before under-edging him for four to fine-leg, followed by a pair of rasping on-drives for four plus a massive square-cut for six over backward point for six as the third over yielded 24 runs and put the visitors ahead of the DLS par score. Ingram then had a spell at the River End and was straight driven for six by Finch as Surrey reached 60 after five overs.
However, rain started to fall and forced the players off the field with Surrey ahead on the DLS Method. With the precipitation still falking at 9.25pm play was called off with news coming through shortly afterwards from Hove that Sussex had beaten Middlesex to clinch a quarter-final spot.