It’s first against second as Glamorgan meet Gloucestershire in their next group game in the NatWest T20 Blast at The SSE SWALEC on Sunday, 10th July with the match scheduled to start at 2.30pm (Gates open 1pm).
The past two days have seen Glamorgan secure back-to-back victories against the Sussex Sharks and Middlesex, with their victories at Cardiff and Richmond coming during what may prove to be a decisive phase in the group stages of the competition as the buoyant team have risen back to the top of the group table, besides further improving their net run rate with Colin Ingram’s three successive sixes at Old Deer Park helping Glamorgan to secure a victory with 21 balls in hand.
In contrast, Gloucestershire lost on Friday evening against Kent at Bristol with Glamorgan’s superior net run rate helping Jacques Rudolph’s team to leap-frog Gloucestershire and back into top spot, as well as having two games in hand over the West Country side. A further victory on Sunday will take the Welsh county within touching distance of a quarter-final place and with further group games still to be played, they will get a home quarter-final if they maintain their position in first, or second place in the table.
Friday evening’s nine-wicket win also helped Jacques Rudolph’s team equal their collective efforts of 2015 when they won seven group games, before agonisingly missing out on a place in the last eight as their final group game, against Gloucestershire at Cardiff was reduced by rain to a five-overs thrash.
The West Country side duly won by eight wickets, but it had been a completely different story in 2014 as Glamorgan overwhelmed Gloucestershire in a contest which, like last year, they also had to win in order to clinch a place in the last eight, of the competition. The Welsh county duly won by eight wickets as Graham Wagg, Michael Hogan and Jim Allenby all claimed two wickets apiece as the visitors were restricted to a meagre 108/9 from their 20 overs.
Gloucestershire do not have a great record in Twenty20 cricket at Cardiff having won just twice - in 2013 and again in July 2006 – so Jacques Rudolph and his team will be looking to complete a record-breaking eighth win of the season.