Jacques Rudolph has told his Glamorgan team to keep their eye on the ball – and not the prize – when they face Yorkshire on Thursday night.
The skipper is determined his side will treat the biggest match of their season so far – a NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final – as just another tie in a competition that brought them their best form this season.
Rudolph – who will be up against one of his former club’s – said: “I think there’s always a danger of going into quarter-finals and semi-finals and putting the match on a pedestal.
“The one thing we’ve done really well this season is – even against quality opposition – we’ve viewed it as just another game and we’ve been very focused on how we go about our business. That won’t be any different on Thursday.”
After a run of disappointing results in the Royal London One-Day Cup and County Championship, Glamorgan will be looking to banish their recent woes when T20 cricket returns to Cardiff.
The Welsh county finished the group stages with two washed-out matches at Hove and Chelmsford, with Colin Ingram hitting a century in the no result with Essex Eagles.
“We’ve had an opportunity to rest our three main bowlers and with Colin and Shaun (Tait) coming into the team, the boys will be nice and fresh,” added Rudolph.
Yorkshire will be without England trio Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance but Rudolph was adamant they will prove a hard nut to crack at The Swalec Stadium.
He added: “I was very happy to play for Yorkshire a few years ago and they’re obviously a big club. It’s my first game playing against them since joining Glamorgan so I’m definitely going to give it my best and it’ll be nice to get to Finals Day.
“Obviously we know quite a few of their players and how they go about their business but we want to play our brand of cricket, which is attacking. Colin has been in unbelievable form, so my message to our players on Thursday is to just keep on doing what we’ve been doing.”
South African Rudolph will again have the luxury of a bolstered bowling attack, with the likes of Michael Hogan, Graham Wagg and Shaun Tait coming back into the side. The Welsh county have excelled this season in taking early wickets and restricting the opposition in the powerplay overs.
Rudolph was delighted to have Tait in the side for the knockout stages after the Aussie made a big impact in the groups.
He added: “One of our strengths this season has been that as a captain I can throw the ball to a Shaun Tait or Timm van der Gugten, who can pick up wickets at any point. its nice to have those options in T20 cricket.
“Shaun is a world class bowler with that x-factor. At any given time i can throw him the ball and he always gets you wickets. There’s nothing that stops the run rate like getting wickets so it’s nice to have him in the team. He’s played in big pressure games before in his career so to have that experience in our dressing room will be vital on Thursday.”
Glamorgan are expecting a bumper 10,000 crowd – a factor Rudolph feels can turn things in their favour.
“The game against Somerset was one of the best crowds I’ve seen here and I know there will be quite a few coming down on Thursday.
“It’s a big game for Glamorgan. Our dressing room is really excited about it and the whole club is excited so there’s no reason for people not to come down and watch. I think it was a shrewd move to take the ticket prices down and as a player there’s nothing better than playing in front of big crowds.”