Same again for Glamorgan against south west rivals

14 Jul 2017 | Matches
White-ball captain Jacques Rudolph will lead an unchanged squad against Somerset tomorrow in what will be the first of two back-to-back matches for the Welsh County.

Glamorgan welcome their West County rivals to The SSE SWALEC on Saturday for their third match of the campaign, before they make the long journey to Chelmsford to face the Essex Eagles on Sunday afternoon.   

Both Somerset and Essex Eagles are struggling so far in this year’s NatWest T20 Blast competition. Somerset have lost their opening two matches, while Essex Eagles have won just one of their three games.

“I’ve had a look at a few of the scorecards,” said Rudolph “but I don’t read too much into them.

“I think it’s important that we come to the game with our won recipe and our own structure and we go about our own business.”

Glamorgan have a good recent record against the teams and have won their last three NatWest T20 Blast matches against Somerset - a run Rudolph believe his side can extend if they use a positive approach.

“They are both teams we’ve played quite a lot and had success against. It’s not a question about standing back against them. We’ll be quite aggressive in how we go about our business.

“If we get two wins this weekend it will be important from a momentum point of view for the rest of the competition.”

Glamorgan lost their opening NatWest T20 Blast match to Hampshire but came storming back with an 18-run win against Sussex at Arundel and Rudolph believes his team are starting to hit form at the right time.

“I think looking back at that game (Sussex) I think it was a complete team performance,” added Rudolph.

“We had some good partnerships with the batting which set us up but obviously Colin played out of his boots and got one of the better hundreds you’ll see.

“I think as a batting collective at this point in time we’re not far from where we want to be.

“With the bowling, I felt that we bowled well under pressure, especially Colin and Michael Hogan.

Glamorgan (13-man) squad: David Lloyd, Aneurin Donald, Jacques Rudolph (c), Colin Ingram, Kiran Carlson, Chris Cooke (wk), Graham Wagg, Craig Meschede, Andrew Salter, Owen Morgan, Marchant De Lange, Timm van der Gugten, Michael Hogan

Corey Anderson will miss both matches this weekend as he recovers from his back spasm whilst Michael Leask has been called in to the squad.

The Somerset squad for the match is: Jim Allenby (c), Johann Myburgh, Steve Davies (wk), James Hildreth, Peter Trego, Adam Hose, Tom Banton, Roelof van der Merwe, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, Josh Davey, Tim Groenewald, Max Waller and Michael Leask.

LISTEN// Jacques Rudolph speaks to BBC's Nick Webb ahead of Glamorgan's NatWest T20 Blast match against Somerset