Glamorgan reached 2017 Finals Day in the T20 competition after defeating the Leicestershire Foxes in the quarter-final at Sophia Gardens. The visitors though were more like pussycats after a supine collapse under pressure from the miserly Glamorgan attack for whom Craig Meschede produced a superb spell in the middle of the innings after the Leicestershire top-order had taken 44 from the first four overs. But there is no better way at slowing a run rate than by taking wickets and, after another exocet-like yorker from de Lange had re-arranged Cameron Delport’s stumps, and a clever slower ball from Graham Wagg had bowled Luke Ronchi, much depended on Mark Cosgrove on his old stamping ground if the visitors were going to build a match-winning total. But the sequence of dot balls from the seam-spin combo of Meschede and Colin Ingram, saw the innings implode, leaving Glamorgan requiring just 124 to win.
Ingram then crowned a memorable evening’s cricket by unleashing five sixes in his 43-ball innings which sent one delivery high into the River Taff and another over the National Cricket Centre, as the Welsh county romped to a nine-wicket victory. Jacques Rudolph, in what proved to be his final white-ball innings at the Club’s headquarters, lost little in comparison, with three high-class cover drives in an over from Gavin Griffiths and a huge pull for six over square-leg against Matt Pillans leaving David Miller, who had travelled over 6,000 miles from South Africa by helicopter, plane and car the day before, to a watching brief in the dug-out, before the retiring Glamorgan captain led his squad on a jubilant walk around the outfield to thank the spectators for their loyal support.
Soon after, the Warwickshire Bears were confirmed as Glamorgan’s opponents in the first semi-final at Finals Day and anyone who was late in arriving for county cricket’s big day out missed seeing a pivotal opening to the Bears innings after they had been put in to bat by Glamorgan. After surviving a loud appeal for l.b.w. in the opening over,Ed Pollock belied his inexperience to score a 25-ball fifty with a volley of sixes and fours to give his side the upper hand. Once again, the Glamorgan attack, through Meschede and Ingram, got their side back into the game with the Bears total of 175-9 being regarded as a par score on a belter of a wicket.
But, whereas the runs had flowed in the Bears powerplay, the wickets tumbled in the first six overs of the Glamorgan innings as the Welsh county nosedived to 48-4. Rudolph though remained undeterred and with some elegant drives and deft flicks, he reached 50 before being run out in the cruellest of ways as a deft flick in his follow-through by Aaron Thomasson back onto the stumps at the non-strikers end terminated Rudolph’s stay at the crease. The lower order then flayed some boundaries and, with 26 needed from the final over, Andrew Salter drilled Chris Woakes for successive fours and a six, before lofting him straight for what seemed to be another maximum. But Adam Hose, standing inches from the ropes in front of the Pavilion, pouched the skier and ended the contest. There ,by the most slender of margins goes success and failure and, had the ball sailed for six, Salter and Hogan would have only needed a further six runs from the remaining two deliveries.
