Glamorgan are flying thanks to a Dutchman who got their T20 Blast campaign off to a winning start against Surrey at The Kia Oval.
Timm van der Gugten took four for 14 on Thursday night as Glamorgan stormed to an eight-wicket victory with 7.4 overs to spare.
Not only was it the county’s first victory of the season, it was also their first win anywhere, in any competition, for 10 months and it prevented what has been been an awful start in the County Championship spreading into white ball cricket to become a full-blown crisis.
Surrey slumped to 93 all out with only the Curran brothers, Sam and Tom, reaching 20. Craig Meschede and Dean Cosker claimed two wickets apiece as Surrey fell apart and Glamorgan strolled to the victory with 46 balls to spare.
Glamorgan’s new opener David Lloyd hit 31 and captain Jacques Rudolph was 34 not out.
Van der Gugten – who took a maiden County Championship five-for earlier in the week against Essex – reflected on a job well done after the sensational bowling performance.
He said: “It’s tough to bowl in the power play in T20 but when the batsmen come at you like they did today, it can create opportunities.
“It was a great performance by the team especially after our start in Championship cricket, it was great to get the win here.
“It’s a little different (in T20) and the wicket was a bit two-paced. I’ve really enjoyed my time at Glamorgan and hopefully now we can get a few more wins.”
Surrey chose to bat but their opening stand of 28 was the highest partnership of the innings, with seven wickets then falling for 32.
They were further hindered by veteran Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood retiring hurt with a calf injury without scoring.
Glamorgan’s next match is also in the T20 Blast, at home to Essex on 1 June.
Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph said: “The last two years we’ve come down here, we’ve had very good performances. As far as clinical performances are concerned that’s as good as you’re going to get.
“Our bowling was outstanding and Timm van der Gugten again was unbelievable and we backed it up well with the batting.
“Surrey’s top three batters can be very dangerous. I continuously tried to attack and get wickets and it’s nice to get some confidence in the dressing room.
“As far as I’m aware Dale Steyn [currently in India] is very keen to play on Wednesday against Essex. Timm van der Gugten has shown with a bit of extra pace the kind of X-factor we need in our team and with him and Dale in the same team, we can be really excited about that.”
Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain, said: “We have not covered ourselves in glory. In T20, a bad day can be really bad. So scratch it off and move forward. I don’t think it is a time for getting too carried away.”