Sharks vs Glamorgan: Match report

Glamorgan made it four wins out of five in their Vitality Blast campaign when they beat the Sussex Sharks by 32 runs at The 1st Central County Ground.

Chasing a huge victory target of 220, they never looked in the chase despite a plucky charge from Tom Alsop, who scored 58 from 41 deliveries.  Tom Clark, pulling across the line, was bowled by Jamie McIlroy in the third over and in the next fellow opener Tom Haines departed, unluckily run out through a deflected straight drive by Alsop.

The situation was hopeless.  But no-one told Alsop.  And for a short period, while he found a reliable partner in Michael Burgess, the near-impossible looked on. 

With ten overs to go Sussex needed 148.  Then, from the last five, they needed 90, at an improbable rate of 18 runs an over. 

But then Alsop was yorked by Dan Douthwaite to make it 133-5 in the 16th over and even the most diehard Sharks supporters gave up hope, not even encouraged by some poor catching by the Glamorgan fielders.

At least some late hitting by Nathan McAndrew, who struck four sixes in an unbeaten 28, entertained those spectators who remained from a large crowd.

Glamorgan had made the most of a flat pitch, a fast outfield and some wayward  bowling and fielding from the Sharks to pile up 219-5, with Colin Ingram (48 off 32 balls) and Chris Cooke (50 off 28) the stars of the show.  There were 23 extras in the innings, including eight no-balls and nine wides.

They got off to a flyer, scoring 71-1 in the powerplay.  There were also two dropped catches in that opening passage of play, to add to the fielding side’s frustrations.

Glamorgan did lose the dangerous looking Eddie Byrom early on, the batsman, injuring himself in the course of a 10-ball 17, and had to be helped off the field.  But captain Carlson maintained the impetus of the innings with two sixes and three fours in a 16-ball 26 before he skied Henry Crocombe to the wicketkeeper Burgess.

The Sharks dismissed Northeast at 106 in the 11th over when the batsman drove Crocombe to short extra-cover where Bopara took an excellent low catch.

But because of their poor start the Sharks had difficulty stemming the flow of runs as Ingram and Cooke plundered their bowling. 

Report provided by ECB Reporter's Network