Despite half-centuries by Jacques Rudolph and Murray Goodwin, Warwickshire defeated Glamorgan by seven wickets under the Duckworth-Lewis Method in their rain-affected Royal London One-Cup match at the St. Helen's ground in Swansea.
With James Harris unavailable for the match against Warwickshire, Glamorgan made two changes to their line-up, with David Lloyd replacing the seamer whilst Gareth Rees returned in place of Will Bragg. It was the usual pairing of Jacques Rudolph and Jim Allenby who opened the batting, with the former - who features towards the top of the competition's run-scorers - starting with an off-driven four against Rikki Clarke.
Allenby also square-cut Oliver Hannon-Dalby who opened at the Mumbles Road End, before both batsmen cover drove Clarke for further boundaries. Allenby also drilled both bowlers through mid-off, but in the eighth over it started to rain and the umpires took the players off the field. Play resumed after a short break with the game reduced to a 49-overs per side contest, with Allenby scything Hannon-Dalby through point for four followed by a crisp flick to square-leg against the tall seamer as Glamorgan ended the powerplays on 42/0.
He continued to unleash some crisply-struck drives as he yet despatched Clarke through the covers, but when Recordo Gordon entered the attack, Allenby chopped the pace bowler onto his stumps. 47/1 saw Rees join Rudolph, with the latter crisply cover-driving Gordon, but with the total on 60, Rees was caught behind as he propped forward to Clarke.
Murray Goodwin joined Rudolph who then edged Gordon between the slip and wicket-keeper, but on 69/2 in the 18
th over, rain forced the players off the field for a second time as a further ten overs were trimmed from the contest. Goodwin deftly nudged Gordon to fine-leg for four before Rudolph despatched Richard Jones through mid-off for four. With the total on 88, another rain delay took place as the contest was further reduced to a 40-overs per side game,
Goodwin showed positive intent from the outset clipping Jeetan Patel for a series of two's before driving Jones through mid-off. Rudolph twice reverse-swept Patel for four en route to a 71-ball fifty, Goodwin biffed Patel to deep mid-wicket before securing further fours against Jones by with a deft nurdle and a coruscating on-drive, Rudolph then reverse-swept Ateeq Javid for four but next over, he was stumped advancing down the wicket to Patel.
136/3 saw Chirs Cooke join Goodwin and he began with two fours in three balls against Javid, through mid-off and to third man. Goodwin then cut Patel to the ropes at third man before reaching fifty from 40 balls by lofting Javid over long-off, but later in the over he scooped the spinner high to the fielder at mid-wicket.
His departure on 163 saw the arrival of Graham Wagg who steered Patel to third man for four before Cooke clipped Patel to square-leg. But with the total on 189 Wagg holed out at long-off as Lloyd joined Cooke and scampered a series of singles before Cooke was also stumped as he looked to deposit Javid into Swansea Bay.
With the final two overs comprising batting powerplays, Lloyd lofted Hannon-Dalby high to the fielder at long-on, before Wallace swept the bowler to fine-leg. With falling again, the players left the field after 39 overs as a torrential downburst broke over the ground with Glamorgan on 225/7. Further downpours occurred until late afternoon, but around 4.30pm it started to brighten up and the umpires, after a lengthy assessment of the conditions, decided that play would resume at 5.40pm with Warwickshire needing 90 from 10 overs.
Varun Chopra and William Porterfield began the chase, with the former nearly miscuing Michael Hogan to Salter running in from third man, but Porterfield then lofted the pace bowler over long-on for a mighty six, followed by another maximum as he lapped Allenby to fine-leg. But Dean Cosker removed the Irishman with his first delivery as he miscued a sweep into Salter's hands at deep square-leg. 23/1 saw Laurie Evans join Chopra, with the latter then sweeping and on-driving the spinner for four.
Evans off-drove Salter's first ball for four, before cutting him to backward point but Wagg kept things tight when he entered the attack. Cosker then switched to the Pavilion End and removed Evans as he swatted a ball to Cooke at deep extra cover. Clarke announced his arrival by lofting Cosker to wide long-off as the target became 30 from 24 balls. But a superb piece of fielding by Cosker at point then ran out Clarke as he tried to steal a leg-bye.
61/3 in the 7
th over saw Javid join Chopra as Lloyd had an over at the Pavilion over and he nearly struck with his second delivery but Rees spilled a skied catch at cover. Chopra rubbed salt into Welsh wounds by despatching the next delivery over extra cover for four, and after three wides the equation became 13 off 12 balls. Two more wides followed in Hogan's next over before Chopra square-cut the Australian before lofting him over long-on for six as the visitors eased to their target with nine balls to spare. The defeat means Glamorgan will be watching other games to see if they can still qualify by beating Sussex next week at Hove.