It’s a battle of the bridge opener
Glamorgan host Gloucestershire in their opening games of the Metro Bank One Day Cup and the home side will be looking for revenge after their two losses in the Blast. Gloucestershire made it through to the semi finals in this competition last year while Glamorgan just missed out on a quarter final spot. Gloucestershire will also be buoyed by qualification for the quarter finals of the Blast with wins in their last two matches, including against Glamorgan. They also came out on top when these two sides met in the One Day cup last year, 3/41 from Graeme van Buuren helping bowl Glamorgan out for 217 and then a century from Ollie Price seeing Gloucestershire home with almost four overs to spare.
The strength of teams in the One Day Cup is strongly influenced by call ups to the Hundred and Glamorgan will be without Chris Cooke and Mason Crane, who has just signed a permanent contract with the club. Marnus Labuschagne has also completed his stint with Glamorgan, despite his not being required by Australia until 19th September. Gloucestershire have lost David Payne and Marchant de Lange, while Beau Webster has moved on.
Crane has been a big part of Glamorgan’s T20 team and they are otherwise limited in the spin department. They have a number of part time options in Kiran Carlson, Tom Bevan, Ben Kellaway and Colin Ingram, while previous regular, Prem Sisodiya has not featured this season. James Harris has been out with an injury and Timm van der Gugten, Jamie McIlroy, Dan Douthwaite and Andy Gorvin will provide the main seam threat. It remains to be seen whether we will see youngsters such as Ben Morris and Tom Norton given a run out. Sam Northeast missed the recent Blast fixtures with a hamstring injury, but is hoped to be fit, joining a strong middle order which includes skipper Carlson and Ingram. Will Smale has been opening in the Blast and he may continue in that role, possibly alongside Eddie Byrom, who has not featured in the latter part of the Blast. Billy Root will also return and it waits to be seen whether Bevan will start. In the warm up game against Wiltshire it was Bevan with 65 and Asa Tribe with 93 not out who scored the bulk of the runs. In this game Smale also took the gloves, bringing into doubt whether ex-England under 19 keeper, Alex Horton will deputise for Cooke behind the stumps as he did last year.
Lead Bowling Coach, Mark Thorburn will stand-in as Head Coach for Gloucestershire while Mark Alleyne resumes his coaching role at the Welsh Fire, with Jack Taylor leading the side on the field, as he has in the Blast. Unlike most of the counties, they have not played a warm up game against a National Counties team, preferring to give their players a rest. Tom Price and Zafar Gohar remain on the injury list, Gohar the bigger loss, having not played since the beginning of May. They do still have Cameron Bancroft, who will be hoping to follow up an excellent Blast campaign, having scored 399 runs. Miles Hammond is only seven behind and the skipper has also put in some match winning performances, none more important than against Glamorgan to secure the win off the last ball, from a seemingly hopeless position.
These look two evenly matched squads, with Glamorgan perhaps shading the batting and Gloucestershire the bowling. However Gloucestershire seem to have the edge over their opponents at the moment and will be hoping to start the competition with a win.
Key players:
Ben Kellaway made an impact in this competition last season with 13 wickets and 195 runs. The tall 20-year-old off spinning all rounder has played in seven Blast games this summer, but bowled just seven overs, taking one wicket and scored 40 runs. He will therefore be keen to get into the action more in the coming weeks.
Ollie Price was the third highest run scorer in this competition last year with 575 at 82.14 and at a healthy strike rate of 91.26. He will be hoping to take a few more wickets with his off spin, managing just three in 2023. He had a disappointing Blast, scoring just 107 runs in eight innings, but has been productive in the Championship, with 430 runs at 45.55. He will be keen to get his season back on track.
Team News
James Harris has been injured and Zain ul Hassan has not played for the last month.
Glamorgan squad: TBA
Tom Price and Zafar Gohar are on the sidelines.
Gloucestershire squad: TBA
Weather and Conditions
Unfortunately the forecast is for rain throughout the day.
A low and slow pitch is the usual scenario at Sophia Gardens and runs should be available as long as the batters do not get too ambitious.
Date: 25th July 2024
Time: 11:00am
Ground: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff