Glamorgan Cricket: Rudolph promises revival in T20 Blast

Jacques Rudolph is hoping to mark his final season with T20 success with Glamorgan

Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph is promising his team will play "with authority" in the T20 Blast despite three consecutive Championship defeats.

The county reached the T20 quarter-finals in 2014 and 2016, and narrowly missed out in 2015.

"We're a team that pride ourselves on white-ball cricket, we've beaten some big teams with big names," Rudolph told BBC Wales Sport.

Glamorgan's first game is at home to Hampshire on Friday 7 July.

David Lloyd, Kiran Carlson and Craig Meschede are likely to be in contention for places in the short format, after missing out on selection in four-day games.

Glamorgan are unlikely to draft in an extra overseas player for the T20 campaign after signing South African paceman Marchant de Lange, their leading One-Day Cup wicket-taker, across all formats.

"It's a format where we can play with quite a bit of authority," said Rudolph, who resumes the captaincy after standing down from the Championship role now occupied by seam bowler Michael Hogan.

"We've got strong, explosive, X-factor bowlers like Marchant and Timm van der Gugten, then the experience of Michael and Waggy (Graham Wagg), then in the batting this year it's going to create some opportunities for some of the young Welsh talent."

South Africa batsman Colin Ingram topped the 2016 batting averages for Glamorgan with 502 runs, including a century and four fifties, while Lloyd totalled 382.

"With the batting, we played with quite a bit of freedom, Colin had an unbelievable season and Lloydy will come into the mix, he's part of the young Welsh talent coming through and it's a nice opportunity for him to get back into the team," explained Rudolph.

Farewell season

The 36-year-old batsman is retiring from professional cricket at the end of the 2017 UK season, 20 years after Rudolph made his first-class debut for Titans in South Africa as a 16-year-old.

"I go to different grounds and I'm quite conscious it's the last time I'm doing stuff, it allows me to try to enjoy it as much as I can. I've had a 20-year career which I'm quite proud of, and it'll be no different when we take on the T20 format," he said.

But with a second child on the way, Rudolph's future involvement in cricket will be on a part-time basis only.

"I've got a few irons in the fire, but at the moment it's away from cricket, I'd like to take a break from it as I've sacrificed quite a lot over the last 20 years," he said.

"Then later on, if there are opportunities to do some batting or leadership consulting, I'd like to get involved in that.

"But definitely as a sideline, if you go back into commentating or coaching, you're repeating the same life-style - I've got a young family and I want to settle down back in South Africa."