Middlesex earn six-wicket Blast win in rain-shortened match at Glamorgan

Middlesex claimed a six-wicket victory over Glamorgan in their Vitality Blast match in a rain-shortened contest in Cardiff.

Luke Hollman’s four wickets and runs from Leus Du Plooy and Martin Andersson in a game that was reduced to 10 overs a side were enough for Middlesex to secure the win at Sophia Gardens.

Hosts Glamorgan lost regular wickets as they managed to reach 88 for nine and Middlesex chased that down with three balls to spare to finish with 89 for four.

Glamorgan will likely need to win all of their remaining fixtures and also hope for favourable results elsewhere to progress, while it may already be too late for Middlesex.

Powerplay

The home side made 27 runs inside the first three overs of PowerPlay with openers Will Smale and Kiran Carlson scoring 17 of those.

Smale sliced a catch to third off the bowling of Tom Cullen, wile Carlson became the first of Hollman’s four victims when caught at long off by Tom Helm.

When Hollman claimed the wickets of the experienced Chris Cooke and Marnus Labuschagne within the space of four balls, Glamorgan had stumbled to 51 for six.

That became 52 for seven when Ben Kellaway also fell cheaply, while Timm Van der Gugten struck some lusty blows to help Glamorgan’s cause before Mason Crane (18 not out) top scored for the hosts.

The opening stand of 55 for Middlesex was far higher than any that Glamorgan had managed and inside the PowerPlay, Du Plooy and Andersson went a long way to breaking the back of the chase.

Du Plooy gave a stiff chance off the bowling of Crane when he was on 23 but Smale could not hold on to the catch at point. Crane did eventually claim Du Plooy’s wicket when he trapped him lbw for 28.

Jack Davies and Andersson fell to consecutive balls to leave with visitors with two batters who had yet to face a ball in the middle. Andersson was brilliantly caught by Carlson in the covers off Labuschagne for 30.

Those wickets gave Glamorgan some hope of squeezing out a win but a big six by Hollman of Labuschagne all-but secured the win for Middlesex, who needed just four runs from the last over.

Things were still tense thanks to McIlroy getting Higgins, but a four from Joe Cracknell off the first ball he faced handed Middlesex the win.