Glamorgan head to Edgbaston for the biggest day in the county calendar for the first time in thirteen years as they meet the Birmingham Bears in the opening semi-final (starting at 11am) on Finals Day of the NatWest T20 Blast on Saturday, September 2nd.
There may be few home comforts for the Bears on their own stamping ground at Edgbaston as Glamorgan have won their last four encounters against the West Midlands, securing home and away victories when the two teams last met in the T20 competition in 2013 as well as doing the double the previous year in a pair of rain-affected contests.
As far as Glamorgan’s overall record in their eight Twenty20 games at Edgbaston is concerned, they beaten the Bears on two occasions, lost to them on four occasions, besides losing to the Leicestershire Foxes in the semi-final game in 2004, with the contest against the Bears in 2008 being washed out. The Welsh county though were victorious on their most recent visit on July 8th, 2012 as Shaun Marsh struck an assertive 68 from 51 balls before some accurate bowling by a Glamorgan attack which featured, amongst others, Robert Croft, Simon Jones, Dean Cosker and Marcus North put the home side well behind the Duckworth-Lewis par score when rain terminated the contest after nine overs of the Warwickshire innings.
Hampshire meet the Notts Outlaws in the second semi-final, and should Glamorgan defeat the Bears and progress to the final (scheduled to start at 6.45pm), they will be looking to turn the form book on its head against each of the other semi-finalists. Hampshire have already recorded home and away victories in their group games this summer against the Welsh county, winning by 22 runs at The SSE SWALEC on July 7th, and then by eight wickets at The Ageas Bowl on August 10th.
As far as the Notts Outlaws are concerned, Glamorgan have never met them in a 20 overs competition, but the team from Trent Bridge were Glamorgan’s opponents the last time the Welsh county were in a one-day final, with the two sides meeting at Lord’s on 21st September 2013 in the Final of the Yorkshire Bank40 competition. However, the Outlaws inflicted an 87-run victory over the Welsh county with Chris Read and David Hussey sharing a decisive and match-winning stand of 99 in 15.2 overs to wrest the initiative back from a vibrant Glamorgan bowling attack which had made early inroads into the Notts batting.
The roads to Lord’s may not have been a happy one in 2013, but all of Glamorgan supporters will be hoping that the journey to Edgbaston and a Finals Day appearance for the first time in thirteen years will prove to be a lucky one for Jacques Rudolph and his team.