By Edward Hall
June 30 2002

A scrambled single off the penultimate ball of the game saw Glamorgan pull off a remarkable win by one wicket over Somerset at Taunton. The win was against the odds after the top order were reduced to 20 for 3, chasing a revised target of 209 off 39 after a break for rain. Somerset had been in a similar position after they had been asked to bat by Steve James, and were soon in trouble at 40 for 4, Andrew Davies capturing the first three wickets, including the vital one of the dangerous Keith Dutch, who was promoted to number 3. Half centuries from Burns and Wood steadied the innings, and it took a decent stumping from Mark Wallace off the bowling of Adrian Dale to dismiss Burns for 51. Rob Turner, with a little cameo at the end, took the score to 220 from their 45 overs.

Matt Maynard, with a gallant run a ball 36, took Glamorgan near to the Duckworth Lewis target, but when he fell, bowled by Steffan Jones, who had been playing with most of the Glamorgan players last Monday for Wales, Somerset were still well in control of the game.

The fifth wicket stand though won the game. Powell and Dale came back out after rain had left the score on 47 for 4 after 12 overs. Any chance of a victory remained with these two, and they put on 75 runs comfortably, running ones and twos on the dependable Taunton track, before Powell fell, bowled by Simon Francis for 32 when he looked set.

With the gloom gathering, so much that at times the batsmen found it hard to pick up the slow bowling of Ian Blackwell, Dale continued to play the same way, dabbing and nurdling the ball round the park. Darren Thomas, promoted above Mark Wallace, improvised his way to 5 runs before mistiming a full toss, and when Wallace fell, with the score on 166 and Alex Wharf striding to the crease, the pendulum swung in Somerset’s favour.

It was in fact Wharf’s sprightly innings of 18 during the final overs that took Glamorgan to victory. Wharf’s innings was not classical, at times it was lucky, but with a run a ball required off the last 4 overs, both Wharf and Dale fell to needless run outs, opening up the game again. Sensible play from Kasprowicz and Davies meant 12 runs were needed off the final over, or so all the crowd thought. Somerset, who evidently knew they had bowled slowly, were docked 6 runs with just 6 balls remaining in the game, thus leaving Glamorgan with the seemingly much easier task of knocking 6 runs off the final over. A four from Kasprowicz at the start of the over calmed the nerves, before Davies collected the single with one ball remaining to take Glammy to another tight one-day victory, added to the infamous list.