Glamorgan welcome group leaders Gloucestershire to Sophia Gardens, Cardiff for their final home match of the summer and their penultimate contest in the Vitality Blast with the T20 game at the Welsh county’s headquarters scheduled to commence at 6.30pm on Friday, 18 September. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The T20 games between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire at Cardiff during 2018 and 2019 have each been closely fought contests with Andrew Tye, the hard-hitting Australian seamer, playing a leading role in the final stages each of the nail-biting games. In 2018, Tye needed to hit three off the final ball to seal a victory for Gloucestershire, but he was bowled by Timm van der Gugten as Glamorgan clinched a thrilling two-run victory. Twelve months later, history repeated itself and, this time, fortune was on Tye’s side as, after a rasping straight drive against Lukas Carey, the appropriately named batsman, together with Graeme van Buuren, scampered home for two runs as the match ended all-square – only the second tie in Glamorgan’s history in the short format.
The game in 2017 between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire at Cardiff saw Michael Hogan complete career-best figures of 5/17 as the Welsh county restricted their opponents to 150-9 after they were put in to bat. But his superb efforts were not enough to win the game as rain interrupted Glamorgan’s innings on 32-2 after five overs, as the visitors won by five runs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method. The match between the two teams at Cardiff in 2016 saw Gloucestershire win by nine wickets as spinner Graeme van Buuren claimed a trio of cheap wickets before Michael Klinger and Ian Cockbain each posted half-centuries to see their team to victory.
Glamorgan’s most recent victory at Cardiff in T20 games against Gloucestershire came on 15 July 2011 when they won a rain-reduced contest by eight wickets. After an interruption to their innings during the third over, Glamorgan were set a revised target of 62 in eight overs under the Duckworth-Lewis Method. The visitors hoped that Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan would be their trump card, but Gareth Rees had other ideas, assertively driving the leg-spinner for six before sweeping the next delivery into the Grandstand for another maximum. These beefy blows, followed by a cover driven boundary against Will Gidman, put the Dragons well ahead of the par score, allowing the two batsmen to then quietly work the ball around. With six runs needed from two overs, Rees departed leg before to Gidman but Chris Cooke settled the issue with a flowing cover drive, followed by a massive pull for six into the Grandstand as the Dragons romped to victory with an over to spare.