Congratulations to Glamorgan for winning their first silverware for 17 years and their first ever one-day final. Having tipped Surrey or Essex to win last week, it was probably inevitable that neither would make the Trent Bridge Royal London One-Day Cup showpiece.
At least they did win their respective quarter-finals with ease. Essex made short work of Yorkshire, with 20 year-old Josh Rymell demonstrating his potential as an opener scoring 121 and Simon Harmer showing what we already knew with a 13-ball 31 not out and two cheap wickets. Tim David smashed another century for Surrey as Gloucestershire‘s attack suffered.
A few days later, it was Surrey’s turn to lose by five wickets. In what looks set to be his final innings for the county before crossing the Thames to Middlesex, Mark Stoneman at last found some form, striking a fine century, but Chris Rushworth’s three quick wickets and that solid top order saw Durham over the line and into the final.
Glamorgan beat Essex by the same margin at Cardiff. Following an excellent start by Hamish Rutherford, Nigel Selman also passed fifty, but it was Joe Cooke’s all-round contribution of 66 not out and five wickets which took the game away from Essex.
And so to Nottingham, where Glamorgan set Durham a challenging target of 298. Captain Kiran Carlson had endured a difficult tournament but came good when it mattered, firing 82 from 59 balls and leading the side with aplomb. In reply, Durham never settled to any rhythm, but that’s 40 year-old Michael Hogan’s forte. It’s quite remarkable for a seamer to end a limited-overs competition with an economy rate below 3 an over but that’s what he achieved.
It’s a crying shame that our once premier one-day contest was downgraded to little more than a run-out for the reserves while the big names raked it in before large crowds at The Hundred. However, it was a chance for youngsters like Rymell, Khushi, Jamie Smith (Surrey’s skipper at 21!) and Lenham, plus little–known second-eleveners such as David, Clark and Haines to demonstrate their qualities. Old heads including Hogan, Sir Alastair Cook, Steve Borthwick and Chris Rushworth also proved that they can excel in white ball cricket as well as red. I do hope we haven’t seen the last of domestic 50-over matches but fear the worst next year.
Team of the
Week: Rymell (Ess), Stoneman (Sur), David (Sur), Carlson (Gla), Bancroft (Dur
+), J Smith (Sur), J Cooke (Gla), Harmer (Ess), Salter (Gla), Hogan (Gla), Rushworth
(Dur)
