Rudolph Insists Glamorgan Will Blast Back

Glamorgan skipper Jacques Rudolph insists his team will not be derailed from their impressive T20 Blast form, despite their defeat to Gloucestershire.

The Welsh county went down by nine wickets at the Swalec Stadium on Sunday as the top two met in the South Group.

But Rudolph believes the defeat – only Glamorgan’s second in the 20-over format this season – will not stop them from reaching the knockout stages.

“We’ve beaten very good teams convincingly which gives us confidence, but unfortunately this wasn’t our day,” said the South African batsman.

“We’ve got a few days’ break now and it’s a nice opportunity for the guys to get refreshed and rejuvenated before we play on Thursday, away to Hampshire.

“We never got momentum with the batting – this wicket turned more than some of the four-day wickets we’ve played on. It was tough against the spinners and Gloucestershire as a team enjoy taking pace off the ball. I think it played a bit into their hands.

“We and the groundsman didn’t think the pitch would have played like that. We knew it was the second game on it, but generally the wickets hold up quite well here. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us today.”

Going into this game the teams were level on points with only net run-rate separating them. But wickets for Graeme van Buurem and tight bowling from Benny Howell and Tom Smith restricted Glamorgan to 119 for 6.

It was never enough runs to defend and an unbeaten stand of 97 between Michael Klinger and Ian Cockbain took Gloucestershire home. Both men reached fifty as they secured victory with 23 balls to spare.

Gloucestershire batsman Ian Cockbain said: “I thought we did really well to keep it to 120. Our spinners bowled really well in the middle. A total of 120 was probably a bit below par.

“We had a good idea of what the pitch was going to be like from the Glamorgan innings. It gave us a bit of a heads up and a chance to get a game plan together.”

“We had a good power-play and got off to a bit of a flyer which was probably a key thing with the new ball, and the ball coming on a bit quicker than through the middle.”