The Sussex Sharks are Glamorgan’s next opponents in the NatWest T20 Blast, as the two sides meet on Thursday, July 7th at The SSE SWALEC in a contest starting at 6.30pm. (Gates open – 5pm)
Glamorgan are currently in second spot in the South group, four points behind leaders Gloucestershire, and one point ahead of the Sharks who occupy third place. But the Welsh county have three games in hand over the leaders, having played seven matches compared with the ten currently played by Gloucestershire, and with a net run rate of +1.573 they still have the best rate in the competition.
Gloucestershire's six-wicket victory over Surrey at Bristol on Wednesday evening means that Glamorgan will remain in second place in the South Group if they beat the Sharks on Thursday evening at Cardiff. The South Coast side were Glamorgan’s nemesis last season, comprehensively beating the Welsh county by ten wickets at Cardiff and by nine wickets at Hove. In the contest last summer at Cardiff, Chris Cooke was the only home batsman to come to terms with the visiting attack, but Glamorgan’s efforts were put into context as Chris Nash and Luke Wright were completely untroubled as they added 116 in 12.2 overs to see their side to an emphatic victory.
It had been a completely different story in 2014 at Cardiff when Cooke made a match-winning contribution by posting a belligerent half-century to see Glamorgan to a thrilling last-ball victory as West Indian Darren Sammy swatted the winning runs from the final delivery.
The Welsh county had been victorious the previous occasion the two sides met at the Cardiff ground, with the game in June 2011 seeing a fine spell of swing bowling by Alex Jones to thwart the visitor’s run chase, with the left-arm bowler taking 3/18 as the Sharks stumbled to a two-run defeat.