Carlson eager for Glamorgan to move forward after Essex loss

Glamorgan 175 all out (18.3 overs): Ingram 48, Northeast 46; Walter 2-19, Sams 2-22, Critchley 2-36.
Essex 226-9 (20 overs): Walter 78, Pepper 42.
Essex (2pts) won by 51 runs

Mark Alleyne’s side will then return to Vitality T20 action with the return fixture against Essex at Chelmsford next Friday after defeat against the South-East county by 51 runs at Sophia Gardens last night.

After starting the campaign brightly with four wins in the opening five matches of the tournament, the wheels have slightly come off the Glamorgan bandwagon with back-to-back defeats at Cardiff against both Surrey and Essex now leaving work to be done in the Southern section as the tournament approaches its mid-point.

Despite Glamorgan’s injury-ravaged lineup’s difficult week, hope is still alive of qualification for a top-four placing to qualify to the knockout phase for the first time since 2017 with only a win and two points separating third-placed Hampshire and the Welsh county.

For the gap to be closed though, Glamorgan will need to improve as a group in the bowling department with Essex, much like Surrey on Wednesday night batting the home side out of the game. Again, too much work and pressure had been left at the feet of the batting department in a match where small margins again cost the Welsh county dear.

Essex started brightly through the power play, providing an early platform and scoring heavily putting the Glamorgan attack under pressure. Returning Dutch Seamer Peter van der Gugten was particularly expensive seeing his first two overs go for 40 runs. 

Glamorgan though would pick up wickets regularly over the innings, Ruaidhri Smith the pick of the attack (3-33), stemming the flow at times with only one partnership throughout amassing more than 50 runs.

The damage, however, would be done in the middle section of the innings with the explosive Paul Walter taking the game away from Glamorgan clubbing half a dozen sixes in swift 78 off just 34 balls supporting Micheal Pepper (42) and later Daniel Sams (30*) in building a substantial total.

Glamorgan’s replied well with Carlson’s brisk 40 from 18 balls and Sam Northeast’s anchoring 46 leading from the front. The run rate would prove to be the stumbling block as Carlson holed out to Sam Cook off the bowling of Matthew Critchley chasing one too many big shots.

This brought to the crease on form Colin Ingram with Glamorgan knowing that holding onto the South African’s wicket would be key to the run chase. Ingram again looked in sparkling form playing a number of elegant shots to spread the field in an entertaining 48.

The pivotal moment of the match, however, came with the increasing run rate once more forcing inevitable errors. Shane Snater, delighted to pick the key wicket up with Ingram caught in the deep by Critchley. 

Chris Cooke and Billy Root soon followed as Walter (2-19) got in the attack with the ball. With the game effectively over as a contest, the Essex attack then moped up the Glamorgan tail with Australian Peter Hazoglou unable to bat through injury, bowling the home side out with nine balls to spare.

Carlson though, whilst disappointed with the result, was keen to look forward rather than back and thinks if Glamorgan can address their shortcomings they can get back to winning ways.

“It was too many runs, it’s as simple as that. We’ve got to be quite honest with ourselves as a bowling unit because there is obviously something not quite right that we are going to try and fix,” said the skipper.

“From where we were it is really frustrating to lose these two games at home. We had our eye on winning at least one of these but that’s gone now, and it is about looking forward and trying to get a positive result over the next couple of weeks.

“It’s about a 200-par wicket. If we were chasing that we probably would have gotton over the line with the way, we batted.

“When you’re chasing that kind of total, you’ve got to go from the off. Sometimes it may work but when you’re chasing 230, it’s one of those where you are going to lose wickets. Something has to go especially right in order to stretch it out.

“We’ve been chasing too many runs two games in a row now so it’s something for us to look at and something for myself to look at as a skipper and Mark Alleyne as coach as well.

“We’ll have a look at it [tweaking the bowling] but I have confidence in the bowlers that have played in the last couple of games. I think our squad depth is there, it is just execution more than personnel at the moment.”

(Lead image: Glamorgan CC)