Glamorgan welcome Hampshire to the St. Helen’s ground in Swansea for their penultimate group game in the Royal London One-Day Cup, with the 50 overs contest scheduled to start on Sunday, July 31st at 11.00am.
After the excitement and drama of their closing group games in the Twenty20 competition, Glamorgan return to action in the Royal London One-Day, with the Welsh county, currently in fifth place in the South Group, knowing that victories in their two remaining group games – against Hampshire at Swansea and third place Surrey at The Kia Oval – will greatly assist their quest of a place in the top four of the group and a quarter-final in the 50 overs competition.
2016 has proved to be a very difficult season for Hampshire, but after losing One-Day Cup game against Kent at The Ageas Bowl on Tuesday by five wickets, they bounced back the following day by defeating the Sussex Sharks at Hove. Hampshire are currently in seventh place in the table and, together with Glamorgan, are one of five teams currently on six points who are scrapping for a place in the quarter-finals.
This will be Hampshire’s first visit to Swansea for a one-day match since June 3rd, 2007 when they defeated Glamorgan in the Friends Provident Trophy game by 137 runs. The contest had seen a star-studded Hampshire side in action at the St. Helen’s ground with the visitors led by Shane Warne and including Kevin Pietersen in their line-up.
But the latter’s contribution was negligible as he was cheaply stumped by Mark Wallace against the spin of Mike O’Shea. However, half-centuries by Michael Lumb, Nic Pothas and Dimitri Mascarenhas saw the visitors to a decent total before Australian fast bowler Stuart Clark claimed 4/25 to see Hampshire to an emphatic victory.
On their previous visit to Swansea, back in August 1993, Hampshire had been beaten by Glamorgan as the Welsh county posted a sequence of victories in winning the AXA Equity and Law League. Captain Hugh Morris led the way with 81 whilst Tony Cottey chipped in with 75 as Glamorgan eased to a six-wicket victory.
Glamorgan were also victorious in their most recent List A match against Hampshire, winning their game at The Ageas Bowl in September 2013 by 31 runs. This was the semi-final of the Yorkshire Bank40 competition and after man-of-the-match Jim Allenby had made an unbeaten74, some probing bowling and razor-sharp fielding saw Glamorgan clinch a place in a Lord’s final for the first time since 2000 as Hampshire were beaten by 31 runs.