Glamorgan travel to Manchester to meet the Lancashire Lightning in the quarter-final of the NatWest T20 Blast with the contest at Old Trafford scheduled to get underway at 6.30pm on Friday, August 1st.
Match Preview
Glamorgan clinched their first quarter-final place since 2008 by comprehensively defeating Gloucestershire at the SWALEC Stadium by eight wickets and their victory sees them meet the Lancashire Lightning for the first-ever time in a Twenty20 contest.
The Welsh county have a decent record against Lancashire in one-day matches having recorded home and away victories the last time the two sides met each other in the CB40 competition in 2011. Glamorgan won a rain-affected contest in May at Old Trafford by 29 runs before a swashbuckling century by Alviro Petersen saw Glamorgan win a high-scoring contest at Colwyn Bay by 69 runs, with the South African sharing an opening stand of 199 with Gareth Rees before completing a superb 144 with 9 fours and 10 sixes, with several of his huge blows disappearing into the gardens of the houses adjacent to the Rhos-on-Sea ground.
Their two victories in 2011 atoned for a couple of defeats in 2010 as Glamorgan lost to Lancashire by seven wickets at Old Trafford, before going down to an eight wicket defeat at Colwyn Bay later in the season.
As far as this year in the NatWest T20 Blast is concerned, Lancashire finished top of the Northern Group, winning ten out of their fourteen group games, with their points tally of 22 being the best in the country. They also only lost twice in the group stages, with two No Results, and their tally of ten victories was only equalled by the Essex Eagles who topped the Southern Group and completed a home and away double over the Welsh county. The Eagles, though, did lose four group games.
Whilst the Lancashire Lightning may be the most successful side in the country so far in Twenty20 cricket in 2014, since the end of the group stages of the competition, they have lost their first two games in the Royal London One-Day Cup, losing to Yorkshire by 47 runs and to Hampshire by 148 runs. In addition, the Lancashire bowlers have conceded totals of 324/7 to Yorkshire and a record 360/9 against Hampshire in these 50-overs matches
In contrast, Glamorgan recorded back-to-back victories over the Middlesex Panthers by seven wickets at the SWALEC Stadium and then by three wickets to Surrey at Guildford as they successfully completed their highest-ever chase in a List A match against county opposition. The Welsh county then lost their match on Wednesday against the Notts Outlaws by three wickets at the SWALEC Stadium.
Team News
Glamorgan have named a 13-man squad for the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final against the Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford. The Welsh county add Ben Wright and Stewart Walters to the eleven who were on duty for the day-night match against the Notts Outklaws at the SWALEC Stadium. The Glamorgan squad in full is: JA Rudolph, J Allenby (capt), WD Bragg, MW Goodwin, CB Cooke, DL Lloyd, MA Wallace (wk), SJ Walters, BJ Wright, AG Salter, DA Cosker, GG Wagg and MG Hogan.