Surrey vs Glamorgan
Vitality Blast South Group Tuesday 20th June 2023
Surrey 238-5 (20) Glamorgan 157-8 (20)
Surrey won by 81 runs
Peter Moore at the Kia Oval
Surrey moved back to the top of the Vitality Blast South Group after a comprehensive 81 run victory over Glamorgan at the Kia Oval on Thursday.
The hosts posted an intimidating 238 thanks to an opening partnership of 66 between Will Jacks and Laurie Evans which built a foundation for some fireworks at the end from Sam Curran. The England all-rounder clubbed 59 off only 22 balls before taking a wicket in his second over to put the home side on the road to a comfortable victory.
The visitors won the toss and elected to put Surrey in to bat. Openers Jacks and Evans posted a fifty partnership inside the fifth over with just a single maximum between them, coming off the blade of Evans who hit Timm van der Gugten over the deep square leg fence.
Glamorgan had to wait until the seventh over to get the initial breakthrough when Evans(40)attempted to cut leg spinner Peter Hatzoglou’s second ball, but feathered the ball into the hands of wicketkeeper Chris Cooke.
Jacks bought up Surrey’s hundred with a maximum over long off in the 10th over and received solid support from Sunil Narine who took successive boundaries off van der Gugten who was expensive after going for 58 in his four overs.
Jacks brought up a fifty coming off 30 balls including six fours and one six as the partnership between himself and Narine flourished.
Glamorgan desperately needed to break the partnership and turned to Hatzoglou from the Vauxhall end, with his first delivery from a new spell had Jacks(69) caught at point to end a partnership of 84 runs in 43 balls.
Four balls later Narine(36) perished in the deep off Hatzoglou for his second wicket in five balls of the over.
It was down to the Curran brothers to ensure some fireworks at the end of the innings with the pair adding an unbroken partnership of 80 for the sixth wicket in just 33 balls with Sam smashing 59 off just 22 balls including six sixes as Surrey posted a daunting 238 for 5 in their 20 overs after scoring 75 in the last five overs.
The visitors reply started brightly with William Smale taking 14 off Sean Abbott’s opening over. However you can’t keep Sam Curran out of the action too long and with his seventh delivery he had Glamorgan’s skipper Kiran Carlson(2) caught in the deep.
22-year-old Smale on his Glamorgan first team debut was looking comfortable after hitting 27 including 26 in boundaries before picking out Tom Curran at mid on off Gus Atkinson’s third ball.
Captain Chris Jordan picked up a wicket in his first over when he had Sam Northeast(15) who was dropped on 10 caught behind low down by Josh Blake, making his T20 debut in place of Jamie Smith who has a badly bruised thumb.
With a required run rate of a shy under nineteen an over, it was time for Cooke to start applying the long handle to good effect by taking twenty off a Sean Abbott over.
With a half century in sight, Cook fell for 49 off Jordan who also had van der Gugten(3) caught behind and Andy Gorvin (12) to finish with figures of 4 for 21 as Glamorgan finished well short of their target.