Liam Feaviour reports from the Oval
Glamorgan got their Natwest T20 Blast campaign off to a flying start with a 25-run win over Surrey on a night where more than 450 runs were scored at the Oval.
Gareth Batty put the visitors into bat and they lost a wicket early when Mark Wallace holed out off the bowling of Tom Curran to Pakistan international Wahab Riaz. The base of Glamorgan’s innings was built by a 141-run stand by Jacques Rudolph and Colin Ingram for the second wicket. Glamorgan skipper Rudolph started slowly but upped the pace before chipping the ball straight to Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of Aneesh Kapil.
Ingram was the highlight of the Glamorgan innings as he smashed seven fours and six sixes on his way to a magnificent 91 off 47 before he was bowled by Riaz. Chris Cooke provided a smart cameo for the Welsh side with 46 off 19 in the final overs to take them to a mammoth total of 240-3.
Surrey’s innings couldn’t have started much worse when Jason Roy skied one off Cooke to get out on just his second ball. Steven Davies and Kumar Sangakkara built a 54-run partnership before Sangakkara was caught off Craig Meschede.
It then turned into the Dean Cosker show as the spinner took 4-30, including the wicket of Davies who made a tidy 58 off 32 before being bowled round his legs. Cosker also dismissed Kapil, Gary Wilson and Vikram Solanki for a duck to put Glamorgan fully in control.
Andrew Salter picked up a couple of wickets in the Surrey tail and despite a valiant effort from Zafar Ansari who hit an excellent 67 from 32 balls, the home side were bowled out for 215 and fell 25 runs short to begin their campaign with a defeat, with Essex up next on Saturday.