Glamorgan: Jacques Rudolph confident despite Essex defeat

Graham Wagg scored 41 against Essex, but also conceded 27 in one over.

Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph says the players should not be worried by their 16-run T20 defeat against Essex.

Colin Ingram's aggressive innings of 70 was not enough for the Welsh county after Essex posted 187-7 in their 20 overs, with Ravi Bopara scoring 52.

Glamorgan were dismissed for 171 in the final over, ending a run of six successive wins in all competitions.

"There's no train smash, we're playing really good cricket," said former South Africa Test batsman Rudolph.

"A lot of teams trying to chase that score would have capitulated a lot earlier.

"Despite the fact that we were under pressure almost the whole innings the guys showed a lot of fight.

"We always felt that even if we needed 14 or 15 an over near the end we would still have had a chance.

"But we never really got momentum with the bat and unfortunately we had one or two big overs against us when we were bowling."

It was one particularly expensive over turned the match in Essex's favour.

Essex celebrate beating Glamorgan, their second T20 win over the Welsh county this season

All-rounder Graham Napier smashed four sixes off the bowling of Graham Wagg in the 19th over of Essex's innings.

That took the score from 148-6 at the end of the 18th over to 175-6 at the start of the final over, which saw a further 12 runs added to the total.

Needing to score at more than nine runs an over Glamorgan managed only three in the first two of their innings, which also saw Craig Mechede bowled for a duck.

A thrilling cameo innings of 41 off 19 balls by Wagg helped bring Glamorgan back in to contention, but tight bowling by Bopara in particular meant they were always just behind the asking rate while running out of wickets.

Glamorgan are back in T20 action on Sunday, 21 June when Sussex visit the Swalec Stadium.

The English county are two places below Glamorgan, who are lying in fifth place in the South Group with four wins from seven matches.

And following the County Championship win over Surrey, Rudolph insists his team still has momentum.

"We've had a great week in the four-day game and I really think we've turned it around in the T20 campaign," he added.

"It's unfortunate that we were on the wrong side of this good Essex performance."