Glamorgan romped to an emphatic nine-wicket victory over Somerset with 28 balls to spare in their Friends Life t20 match to make it four wins out of four and all in front of a bumper crowd of 8,700 at the SWALEC Stadium.
Glamorgan named an unchanged line-up with the same team which defeated the Warwickshire Bears at Rugby School in action again this evening under the Cardiff floodlights. Jim Allenby opened the bowling for the Welsh county and he began in frugal mode yielding just a single against Marcus Trescothick and Craig Kieswetter. Nathan McCullum also took the new ball and yielded just four singles.
Kieswetter nearly holed out to Chris Cooke as he miscued a pull against Allenby but the ball sailed over his head at deep mid-wicket for four. Another boundary came from Graham Wagg who after starting with a wide was slashed through point by Trescothick, but next ball he miscued to mid-wicket where Cooke safely pouched the ball.
14/1 immediately became 14/2 as Wagg bowled Kieswetter off his pads, before five balls later Michael Hogan bowled Alviro Petersen as Somerset's plight got worse as they nosedived to 15/3. Three overs later Peter Trego nearly slashed a short ball from Hogan into Nick James' hands at third man, but the combative all-rounder survived and together with James Hildreth set about improving their team's position.
Trego greeted the return of Allenby by off-driving him for four as the fifty came up in the tenth over with the spinning triumvirate of Dean Cosker, Nathan McCullum and Nick James keeping things tight. A couple of rare boundaries came when Hildreth twice slashed McCullum through the covers, but the Kiwi gained revenge as he bowled the batsman in the 14th over as he attempted a sweep.
77/4 saw Jos Buttler join Trego but he only scored a single before being bowled by the wily Cosker. Craig Meschede then announced his arrival with a massive six over mid-wicket as Wagg returned, before Hogan bowled the last couple of overs at the River End as Somerset reached the 100-mark in the 17th over. Meschede celebrated by lofting McCullum straight for six before drilling his next ball for four. Wagg then bowled the final over and conceded just seven runs as swell as claiming the wicket of Meschede thanks to a spectacular diving catch at deep mid-wicket as Somerset ended on 126/6
The usual pairing of Mark Wallace and Jim Allenby then began the run-chase with the latter drilling both Yasir Arafat and Alfonso Thomas for four through the covers. Allenby added another boundary as he square drove Trego before Wallace found the ropes as he leg-glanced Thomas before slashing him to backward point for another four. Next ball he inside-edged the seamer for another boundary much to the delight of the large and partisan crowd.
They had more to cheer next over as Wallace clipped Arafat to square-leg for six followed next ball by a rasping drive through backward point as Glamorgan raced to fifty in the 6th over, before the Pakistani gained revenge by bowling Wallace. Cooke then joined Allenby and unfurled an exquisite cover drive for four against George Dockrell.
With the equation becoming 47 off nine overs, Allenby and Cooke carefully worked the ball around before Cooke twice deposited Trego for six over mid-wicket to bring up the fifty stand and to see Glamorgan to the 100-mark in the 13th over. Another fumbled piece of fielding by Somerset saw Cooke on-drive Thomas for four before Allenby on-drove Arafat for another boundary as Glamorgan continued their cruise towards one of their most comprehensive victories in Twenty20 cricket at their headquarters.
An on-drive by Allenby followed by a clip to mid-wicket sealed the victory with 28 balls to spare as Glamorgan won their fourth game of the summer, and their fifth in succession to create new club records in the competition
