Rudolph Says Glamorgan Will Still Make T20 Knockout Stages

Jacques Rudoph remains upbeat about Glamorgan’s chances in this season’s NatWest T20 Blast, despite a 25-run defeat to Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl.

Liam Dawson hit an unbeaten 76 before taking 4/23 as Glamorgan lost their third match of the competition this season on Thursday night. But the Welsh county remain well-placed to earn a quarter-final place, laying two points behind South Group leaders Gloucestershire with a game in hand.

Captain Rudolph said Glamorgan’s next game – against Somerset at The SSE SWALEC on Friday – provided the perfect opportunity to bounce back from a disappointing night in Southampton.

He said: “Every single game we play is important and we came down here (to The Ageas Bowl) with high expectations but unfortunately we couldn’t get the win.

“It’s always a great game against Somerset and it’s on Sky so we want to prove to our fans how well we can play. We’ve had good momentum in this campaign. The last couple of games haven’t gone to plan but we can rectify that next Friday.”

Glamorgan have now won seven, lost three and had one game washed out by rain in the 2016 T20 Blast and found themselves behind to a Hampshire side with a triple-pronged spin attack.

Dawson took 4/23 and Shahid Afridi finished with 4-0-16-1, as only Mark Wallace (45 off 34 balls) and Graham Wagg (25 off 26) got going with the bat.

After the game, Rudolph reflected on a difficult night for Glamorgan, but vowed to come back stronger next Friday.

He added: “I think there were two areas in the game where we lost it: I think they got close to 60 runs in the last five overs, Liam Dawson played really well.

“The in the middle period when we were batting I think we lost four wickets for 10 runs. In hindsight, if we played more calculated, we wouldn’t have been 25 runs short by the end.

“It was a bit disappointing. But we’ll assess it and speak about it and when the next game comes, hopefully we can rectify it.

“I thought Mark batted really well up front and the combination of Craig Meschede and Colin (Ingram) was very good in the middle period. But unfortunately we couldn’t get the momentum going with the bat.

“We’re a proud team and we’ve done really well in this competition this season. We can rectify it on Friday.”