The line up for the NatWest T20 Blast finals day at Edgbaston will be completed on Thursday night when Glamorgan host Yorkshire in the last of the quarter finals in Cardiff. Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Durham are already through and one of these two will join them.
Glamorgan were runners up in the South Group to secure home advantage in this quarter final while a fast finish from Yorkshire saw them into third place and they will be looking to make it a clean sweep of North Group sides heading to Edgbaston.
Glamorgan
Glamorgan have only been to finals day once in their history and it was all the way back in 2004 so they will be desperate to get back to the big party. The recruitment they undertook in the winter has worked for them so far this season but now the pressure really cranks up and we saw Gloucestershire shackled by it on Wednesday.
The success of the Welsh side has largely been down to their bowling attack. Michael Hogan, Timm van der Gugten and Graham Wagg are a really good trio while Shaun Tait compliments them nicely but it has to be said since Dale Steyn departed Glamorgan’s form in both one day competitions took a real nose dive.
Yorkshire
If form and momentum counts for anything in knockout cricket then it isn’t hard to argue that Yorkshire have it but the timing of this match hasn’t helped them and their strong squad will be tested to the full in this one. They will need to rely on their senior players ever more in this match with their England players away.
Yorkshire’s bowling attack is full of international quality and they will need all of that in this match but they do bat with some depth and that could yet be important as well. If they can get off to a good start with the bat half the job could already be done.
Team News
Glamorgan remain without Chris Cooke who is done for the season and Rhaidhri Smith is out with injury too. Michael Hogan, Dean Cosker and Graham Wagg all return to the squad having been rested for the recent Championship game.
Yorkshire will be without Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow but Adil Rashid wasn’t picked for England and he will head to Cardiff in time for the game. Travis Head’s Australia call up means he has left so Yorkshire will be without an overseas player for this game.
Cardiff
There have been seven matches here and only once was the first innings score above 160 so we shouldn’t be expecting a high scoring match here. Just because the scores have been low doesn’t always mean the boundaries count has been. The boundaries are accessible here which will give hope to the side who ends up chasing.
Betting
Finally we had an outsider win on Wednesday but I think we will be back to the favourites dominating here. Whatever the reason is, whether it is Steyn’s departure, Cooke’s injury or just a realisation of where they were, Glamorgan’s season is beginning to falter quite badly and they go into this match low in confidence.
Yorkshire don’t have those problems. They have plenty of momentum and form on their side and also players who are used to playing in some really big matches and it is that big game experience which could give the White Rose side the edge.
It isn’t ideal that Travis Head misses out for Yorkshire here but they still have talent in their batting line up and I’m sure David Willey will take plenty of confidence from what he did in this round last year. If you take Ingram out of Glamorgan’s batting line up they don’t have a huge amount either so I’m firmly with Yorkshire here.
I’m surprised you can get 3/1 on Colin Ingram to top score for Glamorgan. The South African is comfortably the best batsman in their line up and that is highlighted in the run charts where he is 250 runs clear of all but one man – David Lloyd – and even he is over 100 runs back. Big players tend to turn up in big matches so the 3/1 he top scores is a touch too big.
Tips
WON – Back Yorkshire to beat Glamorgan for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Ladbrokes
Back them here:
Back C.Ingram Top Glamorgan Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Betfred
Back him here:
