By Rob Carbon
Glamorgan fell to a four run defeat in their final Royal London One-Day Cup clash with Yorkshire Vikings, but still managed to top Group B and bag a home semi-final on Monday.
They were able to stay on top of the table despite their loss thanks to a superior net run rate over the eight pool matches.
Coach, David Harrison is delighted with his team’s form and doesn’t believe this defeat will dent his side’s confidence going into the knockout stage
“The lads have been great throughout the tournament and we are happy to have earned a home semi-final,” explained Harrison who is standing in for Matthew Maynard whilst he’s away with the Welsh Fire in the Hundred.
“It was a bit of a nightmare trying to follow all the results so we just focused on our game. The plan was to win and secure that home semi and we just kept an eye on the other matches.
“We got a great start through Hamish and Nick and they got a partnership going that put us in a really good position to win the game. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get over the line.”
“We’ve got a tight group and the application has been great. They have played for each other and that has shown in their results and in us being top of the group.
“This won’t dent confidence. We’ve won four games in this competition and the games we’ve lost have been by very small margins.
“We are pretty confident and we will re-group and come back strong on Monday.”
The Vikings posted 230, with an eighth wicket partnership of 84 between Jonathan Tattersall and Matthew Waite crucial in their total, while Glamorgan got off to a solid start with a stand of 121 for their first wicket between Hamish Rutherford (58) and Nick Selman.
Selman eventually went on to make 92 and the home side were left with 11 to win off the final over. Matthew Waite restricted them to six runs and two more wickets fell to leave the Welsh country stranded on 226-8.
Having won the toss Glamorgan did what they did to the Notts Outlaws at the weekend and put the Vikings into bat.
The visitors got off to a solid start and Will Fraine hit four boundaries on his way to a quickfire 25 before falling to a catch at the wicket by Tom Cullen off the ever-reliable Michael Hogan in the seventh over.
The 50 came up in the 11th over before another paceman, James Weighill removed Will Luxton, who spooned a thick edge to Steve Reingold in the covers three overs later.
The introduction of the off-spinner at the river end put a brake on scoring and when he bowled opener Harry Duke for 20 the Vikings were 70-3.
It was another spinner, Steve Reingold, who made the next breakthrough in his first over.
His first ball was swept to the boundary by Vikings skipper Gary Ballance, but four balls later he got his revenge when he forced the left-hander onto his back foot and bowled him to make it 88-4 in the 20th over.
The 100 came up with a four through mid-wicket by Hill in the first ball of the 26th over, only the third boundary in a very neat 11 over spell from the home bowling attack.
Then Joe Cooke clean bowled George Hill with a ball that stayed low and had Matthew Revis caught behind with the next ball.
!
Cooke bowls Hill, before nicking off Revis next ball
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— Glamorgan Cricket (@GlamCricket) August 12, 2021
Dom Bess foiled the hat-trick, but the Vikings were rocking a little at 121-6. The England spinner was then lucky to survive a steepling catch at deep mid on which Nick Selman couldn’t quite deal with as Salter ended his quota of 10 overs with 1-34.
Bess wasn’t able to make much of his reprieve as in the very next over he was trapped lbw by the returning Weighill.
Jonathan Tattersall and Matthew Waite steadied the ship and took the score to 178-7 at the 40 over mark, Waite clearing the boundary rope with one shot back over the head of Reingold as their highly productive partnership went through the half-century mark.
The pair steered their side through the 200 barrier in the 44th over before Billy Root took a brilliant catch on the boundary to remove Waite for 44 off Cooke and end a partnership that yielded 84 runs for the eighth wicket.
Cooke ended his 10 over spell with 3-40, while Tattersall’s 50 came up off 58 balls and contained two boundaries. He succumbed to a catch by home skipper Kiran Carlson off the bowling of Hogan in the 47th over for 53.
The Vikings closed their innings on 230 when Josh Sullivan holed out to Hogan off the bowling of Weighill eight ball short of their full allocation of 50 overs. There were 25 extras.
Glamorgan’s slow, but solid start was finally ended when Ben Coad bowled Rutherford with the score on 121.
Hamish Rutherford hits his third 5⃣0⃣ of the season!
Glamorgan 97/0 (24 overs, 133 required to win)
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— Glamorgan Cricket (@GlamCricket) August 12, 2021
The patient approach continued and with 10 overs to go Glamorgan still needed 58 runs to win.
Hill then struck twice in the same over to send back Reingold and Carlson and the Vikings’ noose began to tighten.
Selman then became Hill’s third victim when he was caught by Gary Balance for an excellent 92 and the home side were 187-4 still needing 44 runs off 41 balls to win.
As wickets tumbled, and the run rate rose, so Glamorgan paid the price for their slow start.
Hill ended as the most successful bowler for the Vikings, taking 3-49 in his 10 overs.