An overcast morning in St. John’s Wood was the start, according to the Glamorgan faithful who headed to London in their droves, of the day when the Welsh county would celebrate the Club’s 125th anniversary by lifting their first-ever one-day title at Lord’s.

At first, everything seemed to be going to script as in the cloudy conditions, punctuated by spells of light drizzle, Mark Wallace won the toss and opted to bowl first. After a brief flurry of boundaries from Michael Lumb, the switch to spin in the ninth over saw Andrew Salter break the opening stand with his second delivery, and when Alex Hales holed out to deep extra cover off Simon Jones, Glamorgan had made important early inroads. With the floodlights also being switched on in the autumnal conditions, each bowler added further victims as James Taylor feathered a catch during Jones’ feisty spell whilst Samit Patel tried to hit his way out of trouble against the accurate Salter but only proceeded to give Gareth Rees a straightforward catch at mid-off as the Outlaws slipped further to 90-4.

A couple of overs later it could have been even worse but Rees spilled a far more difficult chance as diving forward he could not quite grasp a firm low drive from David Hussey. The Australian then shared a decisive stand of 99 in 15.2 overs with Chris Read who played the perfect captain’s innings by launching a counter-attack which upped the tempo and wrested the initiative back from the vibrant Welsh side. Their efforts though were ended as in the first of their powerplay overs, a superb stop by Ben Wright at deep extra cover led to a mix-up in calling and Hussey being run out. Michael Hogan then returned and saw Read hole out on the cover boundary, but the Outlaws momentum was maintained by Graeme Swann and Steve Mullaney as a further 49 runs came in 28 balls.

The advantage remained with the Outlaws as Wallace departed in the second over of the Glamorgan innings, but some savage pulls by Rees and a series of flowing drives by Chris Cooke looked to be getting Glamorgan back into the game, and with Jim Allenby quietly working the ball around they reached the 100-mark in the 19th over, accompanied by a rendition of “Bread of Heaven” from the stands. But Patel then claimed three scalps with some sharply-turning deliveries as the eventual Man-of-the-Match conceded just one run in a nine ball spell which completely changed the complexion of the contest as Cooke, Allenby and Murray Goodwin all departed as Glamorgan slipped from 108-2 to 118-5.

Stuart Broad and Ajmal Shazad then added three wickets of their own as Glamorgan were blown away with their innings ending in the 33rd over shortly after Jones, in his final appearance in a List A game at Lord’s had arrived at the crease to a standing ovation from the crowd and applause from the Outlaws fielders. Soon afterwards, the men from Nottingham – in a side boasting nine internationals – celebrated their first one-day silverware since 1991 with Glamorgan suffering their third defeat in a showpiece final at Lord’s to dispel the romantic dreams of the thousands of Welsh fans who had made the pilgrimage up to London to support the endeavours of their wholehearted side.