It’s a case of the One-Day champions for 2024 meeting the winners of the T20 competition, albeit in red-ball format, as Glamorgan welcome Gloucestershire to Sophia Gardens, Cardiff for the final match of the summer in the Vitality County Championship with the four-day contest scheduled to start at 1030 am on Thursday, 26 September. (writes Andrew Hignell)
This is also the return match between the two teams who played out a remarkable tie earlier in the season in the Vitality County Championship at Cheltenham College with Glamorgan’s last man Jamie McIlroy caught by the diving wicket-keeper James Bracey just when it looked as if the Welsh county’s valiant number eleven had struck the 593rd and winning run of a totemic and world-record run chase at the historic College Ground.
There wasn’t such remarkable drama in last year’s contest between the two teams at Cardiff which was the opening Championship match of the 2023 season, as Kiran Carlson and Billy Root made centuries to guide the Welsh county into an impressive position with a first innings lead of 223 runs. With batting conditions far easier than in Gloucestershire’s second innings at Sophia Gardens, Marcus Harris then completed a magisterial 148 with his deft placement and perfect timing catching the eye.
Glamorgan’s bowlers, however, stuck to their task and whittled away at the visitors’ line-up as Gloucestershire began the final day 134 runs ahead with five wickets remaining. But Graeme van Buuren dispelled any thoughts of a home victory as the visiting captain compiled a patient hundred and, with a lusty half-century from Tom Price, he saw his team to a lead of 330 before declaring forty minutes before tea as the contest ended all-square.
Gloucestershire have won three of their last five Championship games at Cardiff, with the West country side being victorious by ten wickets in 2021, despite Hamish Rutherford and David Lloyd sharing an opening stand of 136. The game though swung in Gloucestershire’s favour thanks to a second innings haul of 6/43 by Zafar Gofar as the Welsh county were dismissed for 124.
Gloucestershire were also the victors at Cardiff in 2018 with Craig Miles – who earlier this season appeared on loan from Warwickshire for Glamorgan in their opening Championship match of the season at Lord’s – taking eight wickets and Jack Taylor posting 112. The contest between the two teams in 2017 proved to be a high-scoring draw with Kiran Carlson scoring a superb 191 as he came within nine runs of being both the Club’s youngest centurion and double-centurion.
Glamorgan’s most recent victory against Gloucestershire in four-day cricket at Cardiff came in 2013 as the home side won by eight wickets with Jim Allenby taking 4/16, having also posted 85. Chris Cooke and Murray Goodwin also registered half-centuries to set up what was the fourth successive victory on Welsh soil for Glamorgan against the West Country side, as they had defeated Gloucestershire by 26 runs at Swansea in 2012, as well as at Cardiff in 2011 by 189 runs, and in 2010 by an innings and 4 runs.
There are some personal milestones for some of Glamorgan’s batters during this game with both Sam Northeast and Kiran Carlson closing in on the 1,000-run landmark. Sam needs a further 60 runs and Kiran 78, and if both reach these targets during the contest with Gloucestershire, it will be the first summer since 2011 that three Glamorgan batters have reached this milestone, with Colin Ingram having already amassed 1,267 runs to become the leading run-scorer in the Vitality County Championship this summer.