Glamorgan 2nd XI have begun their defense of the Second Eleven T20 title this week with matches at Portland Road, Birmingham on Monday and Spytty Park in Newport on both Tuesday and Wednesday. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The Welsh county won the 2nd XI T20 title at Arundel Castle in 2019, and with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the tournament last year, their games in this summer’s competition will therefore be their first since, under the captaincy of Tom Cullen, they defeated Hampshire 2nd XI by one run in a nail-biting final.
Glamorgan have prepared for this summer’s competition by staging friendly T20 matches against Gloucestershire 2nd XI a fortnight ago at Sophia Gardens as well as with Warwickshire 2nd XI at Spytty Park. The back-to-back matches at their Cardiff headquarters were washed out after 11.4 overs of the visitor’s innings in the opening contest, but the two games staged last week against Warwickshire saw Glamorgan record a pair of victories, so the Welsh county went into today's match at Birmingham looking to make it three out of three this summer against the West Midlands side.
However, the West Midlands side avenged their defeats last week, thanks to a fine all-round performance by West Indian international Carlos Brathwaite who made 116 and took 4/27 as Glamorgan went down to a 13-run defeat. The visitors had began well, reducing the hosts to 22-3 before Brathwaite blasted a 49-ball hundred, with 8 fours and 8 sixes prior to becoming one of four victims for Ruaidhri Smith as Warwickshire ended on 202-6.
Nick Selman then led a spirited run chase, racing to 50 from 26 balls before 30 balls later completing his century with 6 fours and as many sixes. However with Glamorgan needing 46 off 18 balls, and then 29 off 12, Selman perished for 107 as he was caught at deep extra cover attempting another boundary against Brathwaite with Glamorgan ending on 189-7. A ball-by-ball scorecard of today's game is available here
Spytty Park will be the venue for the matches against Somerset on Tuesday, 1 June as well as Northamptonshire on Wednesday, 2 June. Both of the games at the Newport ground will get underway at 11.30 behind closed doors. Once again, you will be able to follow Glamorgan 2nd XI in these games courtesy of the PCS-Pro scoring software.