Glamorgan welcome Surrey to The SSE SWALEC in their next match in the NatWest T20 Blast on Friday, June 24th, with the contest scheduled to start at 6.30pm (Gates open at 5pm) as the Welsh county look to move closer to clinching a quarter-final berth in the all-action competition.
Friday night’s clash is a mouth-watering one as first meets second in a contest which could determine who ends up on top of the South Group. The Welsh county are currently top of their group table and have not looked back since the opening contest of the 2016 competition when they overwhelmed Surrey by eight wickets at The Kia Oval with Timm van der Gugten claiming 4/14.
This was the second consecutive season that Glamorgan have begun in impressive form at Surrey’s headquarters as in 2015 they posted a Club record total of 240-3. However, Jacques Rudolph and his team will have to be wary that Surrey avenged their mauling at the hands of Glamorgan’s batsmen in the opening contest of the 2015 competition at The Kia Oval by winning last summer’s encounter at Cardiff by 19 runs.England international Jason Roy led the way last year by bludgeoning a quick-fire 61 to launch the Surrey innings, before the veteran seamer Azhar Mahmood and his young apprentice Sam Curran each claimed three wickets as Glamorgan’s run-chase faltered. Surrey were victorious as well in 2014 when they met the Welsh county at Cardiff with South African Hashim Amla making an elegant half century before Irishman Kevin O’Brien launched a vibrant counter-attack late in the Surrey innings, with his withering blows helping to lay the foundation for a 17-run victory.
In the game at Cardiff in 2011 the South London club had come out on top again as Zander de Bruyn struck an unbeaten 70 to see his side to an 18-run win. Glamorgan however were victorious in July 2010 when a spell of 3/25 by Jamie Dalrymple saw Glamorgan record a ten-run victory.
Dean Cosker featured in all of these matches, and Friday’s match could be a memorable one for evergreen spinner who goes into the contest with 98 Twenty20 wickets to his name. He did not bowl in the victory over the Kent Spitfires so he is still two wickets away from becoming the first Glamorgan bowler to claim 100 wickets in the short format of the game, besides joining the small and exclusive list of bowlers who have claimed over 100 wickets in Twenty20 cricket in England and Wales which includes seam bowlers Yasir Arafat, Azhar Mahmood, Alfonso Thomas, Richard Pyrah and Graham Napier plus fellow spinners Danny Briggs, Samit Patel and James Tredwell.