Vitality Blast Match Preview- Surrey v Glamorgan

Vitality Blast Match Preview- Surrey v Glamorgan

This is Surrey’s opening Blast fixture and their preparations have been hampered by the weather, with their second XI games on Monday and Tuesday this week abandoned. They did manage a game against a Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI on Wednesday (who tonight play at Taunton, which you can also watch on Youtube with DEC’s Harry Everett’s commentary) in which they had a comfortable nine wicket win. The squad is littered with big names and these will be marshalled by new T20 skipper, Chris Jordan, following his move back to Surrey in the off season. He will also have two well travelled West Indians at his disposal in Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine. While Pollard had a relatively poor IPL this year, being left out of the Mumbai Indians team for their last three matches, off-spinner Narine has been the tournament’s most economical bowler.

Glamorgan start this year’s competition with three games in the south east. On Thursday night they produced a fine team performance to register a comfortable seven wicket win against Sussex. 40-year-old Michael Hogan, playing in his first Blast game since 2019, was the pick of the bowlers with 3/26, while Dan Douthwaite conceded just 13 runs from his three overs, also picking up a wicket. Sam Northeast led the chase with an unbeaten 63, with each of the other batters contributing.

Surrey are one of the fancied sides in this competition and are likely to provide a much stiffer test for Glamorgan. They will be keen to reach the knock out stages, having just missed out on a quarter final spot last year, on net run rate.

Key players:

Sam Curran has been away from the international stage since picking up a back injury in the 2021 IPL. However, even when not able to bowl he has been worth a place in the Surrey side just as a batter, currently averaging 65.6 in this year’s County Championship. He is becoming a top class all-rounder and will soon be back in the England white ball squad, as long as he remains fit.

Kiran Carlson has looked the most likely Welsh player in recent years to force himself into England consideration, following his becoming the youngest Glamorgan player to register a first-class century, back in 2016. He scored 928 runs in last year’s County Championship, at an average of 48.84 and is now the county vice-captain. He is the Royal London One-Day Cup captain, having led the side to victory in last year’s competition and has the ability to score big runs quickly, as he demonstrated the last time the Welsh side won at the Oval, in 2018, when he scored 58 off 32 balls to help chase down a target of 195.

Team News:

Pollard is not available until Surrey’s second game against Gloucestershire next Tuesday. However, Narine is included in a 15 man squad.
Surrey squad: Chris Jordan (c), Gus Atkinson, Rory Burns, Jordan Clark, Sam Curran, Laurie Evans, Will Jacks, Dan Moriarty, Sunil Narine, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Jason Roy, Jamie Smith, Reece Topley, Daniel Worrall,

Stretched seam resources meant that Colin Ingram was sacrificed in order to include Australian overseas player, Michael Neser in the Sussex fixture. Given the successful outing it would seem likely that the same XI will take the field.

Glamorgan squad: David Lloyd (c), Kiran Carlson, Chris Cooke (wk), Joe Cooke, Dan Douthwaite, James Harris, Michael Hogan, Colin Ingram, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Sam Northeast, Andrew Salter, Prem Sisodiya, James Weighell

Weather and Conditions

The forecast is for a warm, sunny evening in London.

The Oval has a reputation for batter-friendly pitches and a high scoring game is expected.

Date: 27th May 2022

Time: 06:30pm

Ground: The Oval

Odds (SkyBet): Surrey 1/2; Glamorgan 13/8 https://m.skybet.com/cricket/t20-blast/event/2963129

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