South Group: Glamorgan 96-2 (Rudolph 34*) beat Surrey 93 (van der Gugten 4-14) by eight wickets
Surrey have always marketed themselves as a glamorous side. But a home crowd of more than 15,000 had little to get excited about in a truly one-sided first home game of the season.
The pyrotechnics operators had a quiet night as Timm van der Gugten’s 4-14 – but mainly a succession of appalling shots – secured Glamorgan their first win in any format since 31st July 2015.
While Glamorgan may be considering a call to Dale Steyn to inform him of a change of plans after their seamers ripped Surrey to pieces, on this evidence the hosts need all the overseas guns they can get.
Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Morris are still at the IPL and may have watched on as the Welsh side extended their winning run at The Oval to four Natwest T20 Blast games.
The last win came after a first innings score of 240. This was quite a different showing.
Having won the toss and elected to bat on a good wicket it was all going to plan for Surrey at 28-0 off three overs, but it wasn’t to last.
Steven Davis (11) was first to go, picking out the only man back on the legside with a perfectly-timed hook.
Van der Gugten then picked up his second wicket, as Kumar Sangakkara’s charge and attempted booming drive succeeded only in sending a flying edge into Chris Cooke’s gloves and a groan around the crowd.
Jason Roy (15) followed suit, falling in characteristic fashion after a skewed drive, with Colin Ingram claiming an excellent catch.
After Zafar Ansari had edged van der Gugten behind for a duck it was clear Surrey had applied the necessary pressure to the self-destruct button.
Overs three to six had brought four wickets and nine runs. Nasser Hussain informed the TV audience that four wickets in the power-play equates to an 88% loss-rate. It was game over after barely 30 minutes.
There were flashes of light to come in the Surrey innings – both Sam (21) and Tom (20) Curran got off the mark with confident flowing drives from their first deliveries – but the responsibility shirked by the more experienced players told.
Sam Curran treated the crowd to consecutive sweeps of both varieties before rocking back and walloping straight to the only legside close fielder.
It went from bad to worse when 41-year-old Azhar Mahmood, who was leading run scorer and wicket-taker from the win over Essex, limped off with a pulled calf.
Gary Wilson was bowled around his legs by van der Gugten, before the seamer picked up his fourth wicket by pinning James Burke lbw in a double-wicket maiden.
Dean Cosker polished off the tail to allow his batsman to get on with business.
They didn’t waste much time, either. David Lloyd (31) signalled the death knell with three boundaries off Sam Curran’s second over, before ironic cheers greeted his mishit dismissal.
Ingram pumped his first ball for six, before he fell to a mistimed pull. But an Aneurin Donald six and Jacques Rudolph’s professional 34 saw Glamorgan home with ease with a full 46 balls to spare.
