Metro Bank One Day Cup 2024, Final – Live Streaming and Report – Glamorgan vs Somerset – 23rd September

Here are the Metro Bank One Day Cup 2024, Final – Live Cricket Streaming, Live Scores, Match Report and Reactions  Glamorgan vs Somerset – 23rd September.

Glamorgan vs Somerset, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Final

The last leg of Somerset’s treble bid went the way of the first two as Glamorgan won a truncated Metro Bank One Day Cup Final on a gloomy reserve day at Trent Bridge that mercifully stayed dry long enough for them to lift the trophy for the second time in four years.

In a match reduced in advance to 20-overs a side after Sunday’s total washout, overhauling Glamorgan’s 186 for seven proved beyond them as the Welsh county, who beat Durham here to win he 50-over competition in 2021, came out on top by 15 runs, restricting Somerset to 171 for six.

Sam Northeast had anchored the Glamorgan innings with an unbeaten 63, backed up by Billy Root’s 39 off 27 balls, both hitting two sixes in a crucial fifth-wicket stand, Timm van der Gugten backing them up with 26 off just nine balls to bookend Will Smale’s 28 from 14 at the  top of the innings.

Skipper Sean Dickson hammered 44 from just  20 balls after Andy Umeed’s 45 from 36 for Somerset, but after off-spinner Ben Kellaway and seamer Andy Gorvin had taken two wickets each, Glamorgan’s Jamie Mcilroy and Dan Douthwaite held their nerve with two fine overs at the death to finish the job.

Beaten in the Vitality Blast final and knocked out of the race for the Vitality County Championship in the preceding nine days, the defeat left Somerset empty handed yet again.

The only disappointment for the winning team was that their moment of triumph was witnessed in the flesh by only a smattering of spectators on the ground rather than the thousands who had turned up on Sunday.

England spinner Jack Leach did not bowl a ball as Somerset opted to rely on five seamers, of whom George Thomas took two for 23 and left-armer Alfie Ogborn two for 36 from their four-over allocations.

After Sunday’s total washout forced the teams to return for the scheduled reserve day, play mercifully began on time, with the contest sensibly reduced to 20 overs per side even before the toss had been made, in anticipation of more heavy rain due to arrive in early afternoon.  

Somerset won the toss and opted to bowl as the Trent Bridge floodlights illuminated the misty gloom hanging over the ground.

Ogborne took wickets with his third and fourth deliveries, bowling skipper Kiran Carlson before Tom Bevan shovelled tamely to short fine leg, but Glamorgan still put up 39 runs in the first four-over powerplay thanks to Smale’s aggression. 

Smale raced to 28 from his first 13 balls, living dangerously against Josh Davey with three boundaries over third but striking Ogborne cleanly over mid-on and for six over square leg. The threat he posed was removed when Dickson held a brilliant catch falling backwards at mid-off.

After South African Colin Ingram, one of Glamorgan’s trump cards, picked out wide long-on off George Thomas for just 11, Glamorgan were 71 for four from 10 and needed to find new energy. 

It came initially from Root, who cleared the rope three times, with Northeast eventually following suit with two of his own, one from a free hit, as Kasey Aldridge’s final over went for a damaging 29.  They added 78 in 49 balls before Root was caught behind off Thomas.

The next two wickets came quickly as Northeast’s failure to run as he was caught off a no-ball left the big-hitter Dan Douthwaite stranded, before Kellaway sliced to short third, but Van der Gugten’s swashbuckling cameo, encompassing four fours and a six off Davey hammered over long-off raised the total to something that looked defendable on a slow pitch. 

In reply, Somerset had Thomas run out in the third over of a stodgy powerplay and were some way off the pace at 63 for two from 10 after Lewis Goldsworthy, who had hit a century in the semi-final to down holders Leicestershire, picked out long on off Kellaway, although Umeed was beginning to land some blows.

A double setback followed as Umeed fell to a superb catch by Smale standing up to Andy Gorvin and James Rew was caught off a top-edged sweep as Kellaway landed his second blow, leaving Somerset 89 for four in the 13th and Glamorgan firm favourites.

A blistering partnership of 66 in just five overs between Dickson and Archie Vaughan dragged Somerset right back into contention, Vaughan having survived Kellaway’s lbw shout on umpire’s call before he had scored.

But after hammering 44 from 20 balls, hitting sixes off Van der Gugten (twice) and McIlroy, Dickson skewed Gorvin to short third, costing them critical momentum with 32 needed from 15 balls.

It came down to Somerset needing 29 from the last two, a task that ultimately proved too much, Douthwaite picking up a wicket when Green heaved in the air to square leg and Vaughan’s boundary off the last ball was academic.

Match Stats

Glamorgan match-winner Sam Northeast said:

“We hadn’t played any Twenty20 for a while so it was strange coming into a 20-over contest. We didn’t even know we were going to get a game at all so the change from 50 to 20 overs about 40 minutes before meant we had to adapt as best as possible. In the event, it started to rain just as we were coming off so somebody was clearly looking down on us.

“I’m glad they did make the change. It was the right thing to do in the circumstances, to get the game on.

“We didn’t really know what a good score was so from my point of view it was just about building partnerships, getting a bit of a platform and trying to accelerate once we had a feel for the pitch.  I was a bit surprised that Jack Leach didn’t bowl for them. I think with the surface holding a bit, he could have been quite tough, but then again the ball did seam around a bit early on, so you can understand why they decided to stick with the seamers.

“At one point we thought 160 might be okay but that little innings from Timm van der Gugten at the end gave us what we thought was a pretty good score, one that we knew would be competitive.  Timm hit the ball really cleanly and Billy Root through the middle too, and the way Will Smale got us off to a bit of a flyer meant we had something to build on.

“There were a few nerves jangling when Sean Dickson started to hit the ball so cleanly in their innings but we kept looking up at the board and the rate was still up around 13 going into the last four, so we felt we were just about ahead.

“It has been a long season in which everyone has put in so much hard work so to end it with a trophy is well deserved.”

Somerset skipper Sean Dickson said:

“We could analyse all day where the game was won and lost but I think they obviously bowled better than us. With the fresh pitch, it definitely offered something with the new ball up top. 

“Our bowlers were slipping and sliding all over the place, which was unfortunate, but that’s what you get for choosing to bowl first and we just have to take our medicine and move forward.

“We were fine playing it as a T20. We just wanted to get a game on, as did they. We had a discussion with the umpires, the match ref and the ECB ref that was there so we were all on board.

“When I was batting, I was hitting the ball so well I was hugely optimistic confident we could chase down that score but cricket is a funny game, it swings your way sometimes and other times it doesn’t. Credit to Glamorgan, they held their nerve.

“As a county, we’ve ended up winning nothing when we would have liked to finish with at least one or two trophies, but the bottom line is that we have just competed for three trophies and we are really proud as a squad that we have been able to do that. 

“In this competition, we have resisted the temptation to bring back guys that we lost to the Hundred so I’m hugely proud that this squad in particular made it all the way to the final.

“And we were much happier today to be able to go out and try to win on the field rather than have had a total washout and shared the trophy. No one wants to share a trophy, everyone wants a bash at trying to be a winner.”

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