GLAM NOW FOCUS ON 50 OVER GAME
GLAMORGAN will turn their attention to their third competition of the summer when they start their 50over campaign tomorrow. After six county championship matches, when Glamorgan have failed to record a victory and prop up Division Two, the Welsh county have played three NatWest T20 Blast matches and won two games including Friday night’s victory over Hampshire in Cardiff.
The Royal London One-Day cup begins today, with Glamorgan facing Gloucestershire in Cardiff on Monday.
In the past the competition has often become a little bit of an afterthought due to being played at the back-end of the season.
If teams had something to play for still in the County Championship, then they couldn’t afford to push too hard in the cup. But now it has a slot right in the middle of the summer, while the T20 Blast is going on.
The competition consists of two groups of nine teams, from which the top four teams from each group progress to the quarter-finals.
The groups are allocated randomly.
Glamorgan will be hoping their inform duo Aneurin Donald and Colin Ingram can recreate their T20 heroics after guided their side to a dominant NatWest T20 Blast five-wicket win against Hampshire at the SSE SWALEC.
South African fast bowler Dale Steyn, who is not available for the 50over format, had finished with three wickets in his second T20 match for the Welsh county as Hampshire were dismissed for 141 inside 19 overs in Cardiff in front of more than 6,000 fans.
Steyn recorded figures of three for 22, while Hogan produced an excellent spell of four for 28 with Adam Wheater top-scoring for Hampshire with 37.
And man-of-the-match Donald recorded a second successive T20 half-century in three days with his blistering 50 coming off just 24 balls as he shared in a third-wicket stand of 94 runs in just 8.3 overs with Ingram (43).
“I hit them really well from the start,” said Donald.
“It is always nice to get off to a flyer, it takes the pressure off yourself a little bit.
“Having Colin hitting them that well at the other end was really helpful.
“I should have been 70 not out but it’s nice to be hitting it this well and hopefully I can really push on now.
“We did really well to restrict them to what we did.
“Especially Michael, and it was re-
ally great to see Dale on the board as well.”
Ingram added: “It was a quality crowd in and at stages of the game we really stepped it up.
“The back end couple of overs Dale and Hogan really turned it on and there was a great partnership between myself and Aneurin.
“Just two periods that really changed the game for us.”
Donald completed one of then quickest half-century in Glamorgan’s history equalling the record for the fastest half-century for the Welsh county by a home-grown batsman in the Twenty20 competition.
This was held by the late Tom Maynard against Essex at Chelmsford in 2010, as well as Richard Grant against Somerset at Cardiff in 2006 and David Hemp, against the same opponents at Taunton in 2006.
Donald’s efforts have only been bettered in Twenty20 cricket by the 18-ball half-centuries struck by the Kiwi pairing of Brendan McCullum and James Franklin in 2006 against Worcestershire at Sophia Gardens, and versus Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
In List A cricket, Stewart Walters struck a 19-ball fifty against Lancashire at Colwyn Bay in 2011, whilst Matthew Maynard and Jamie Dalrymple each struck 21-ball fifties against Lincolnshire at Swansea in 1994, and Surrey at The Oval in 2010.