Glamorgan 348 for 8 (Root 78, Labuschagne 54, Douthwaite 52*) beat Sussex 347 for 7 (Evans 110, Wright 97, Wiese 57*) by two wickets
Glamorgan pulled off their record county chase, as well as a record run chase at Hove, as Sussex’s interest in the Royal London Cup ended. Bit-part players at the start of the day, Glamorgan overhauled Sussex’s 347 for 7 with two wickets and eight balls to spare. It was on TV, too, and as such is even more bound to gain a special place in the county’s history.
Most praise will be reserved for the emergence of a young player of promise. When the day began, few would have imagined that Dan Douthwaite would be commanding a headline. Dan, Danny, Daniel? When the correct short-form is required for a player’s Christian name, it’s a fair bet that he is beginning to make a name for himself.
Not that you could tell even his surname from his shirt. Douthwaite is about to complete his studies at Cardiff Metropolitan University and signed a three-year deal with Glamorgan a fortnight ago. He played in a blank shirt because the one on order has yet to arrive. It will say “Douthwaite 88”, recommended by his mother on the grounds that it rhymes.
Douthwaite’s 2 for 46 represented Glamorgan’s most economical spell. They were two top-order wickets. If George Garton was a lower-order batsman having a dip at No. 3, to knock our Stiaan van Zyl’s off stump as he covered up to a length ball was not a bad start. Then came an unbeaten 52 from 35 balls as Glamorgan summoned one of their finest displays in recent years. He did enough to justify his description from Glamorgan’s coach, Mark Wallace, as “a dynamic player”, although luck was also on his side as several balls dropped safely in a frantic finale.
By the time Sussex lost, the result didn’t matter anyway. Results elsewhere in the South Group had already meant that it was Somerset and Middlesex who had qualified for the play-offs, so following Hampshire who had already won the group and gone straight into the semis.
But the game that ultimately didn’t matter certainly mattered to Douthwaite. It was only his third List A match. In his last innings he made a first-ball duck against Middlesex and did not taken a wicket. “None of that was on my radar today,” he said. Sussex were aware of the danger he possessed as he struck a maiden first-class hundred against them for Cardiff earlier this year.
They will also tell you with a sense of mischief in Welsh cricketing circles that the winning six, heaved over midwicket by the debutant Roland Walker, a 19-year-old teenaged seam bowler from Wrexham, was the first blow of note ever struck in county List A cricket by a player called Roland – the sort of quirky statistic that the county game cannot resist.
Four counties began the final round of matches in the South Group contesting two play-off places. As the fifth-placed side, facing a perceived weaker opponent in Glamorgan, there must have been a temptation for Sussex to go for broke to enhance their run rate. But their top-order has not consistently delivered in this competition. The overriding impression in their innings was one of of determined responsibility: for all that, they still made 347 for 7.
Glamorgan judged their chase perfectly. They lost David Lloyd, caught on the square-leg boundary in the sixth over. Jeremy Lawlor scored a sprightly 48 at a run-a-ball before he was dismissed by Abi Sakande and Chris Cook was third out at 117, bowled by a ripper of a legbreak from Will Beer for 41. The odds seemed against them when their powerful overseas allrounder Marnus Labuschagne, hitting across the line, was lbw to Danny Briggs for 54. But Root maintained the chase, with an impressive 66-ball knock, before he was run out by Briggs’ fine throw from the deep before Douthwaite took charge.
Sussex’s innings was an earnest affair, the score advancing seemingly quickly enough. Luke Wright fell three runs short of a century when he pulled Lukas Carey to short midwicket. Laurie Evans did make a hundred – 110 from 87 balls. Always destructive, he was at his most stylish before uppercutting de Lange to the cover boundary at the start of the 48th over.
By then the prolific David Wiese had established himself. Wiese came into the match having struck 338 in six innings in the competition and he followed up with a 38-ball 57 to give what appeared to be a matchwinning total. But Sussex, without the bowling trio of Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills, are not the bowling force they were. The day belonged to Glamorgan.