T20 Blast: Glamorgan beat Middlesex by 21 runs

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford watched as Colin Ingram steered Glamorgan to victory

Glamorgan batsman Colin Ingram starred with 75 as his side beat Middlesex by 21 runs in the T20 Blast.

He scored exactly half Glamorgan's 150-9 with the visitors only managing 129-9 in reply.

Ireland's Paul Stirling hit 46 and England captain Eoin Morgan 33, but Glamorgan's seamers all bowled tightly.

Glamorgan now have two wins from five and Middlesex just one.

Glamorgan, several of whose batsmen were short of runs, lost captain Chris Cooke to a late injury withdrawal with David Lloyd taking over the captaincy and wicket-keeper Tom Cullen making a limited-overs debut after a quick dash home to get his kit.

They were hugely reliant on South African star Ingram on a used pitch as he fought a one-man campaign for most of the innings, muscling a couple of trademark big hits on the leg side and also smashing a series of powerful cover-drives in his first big score of the season.

But Steve Finn (4-19) was too good for most of the Glamorgan batsmen, claiming the key wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Lloyd in successive balls.

Blake Cullen, 19, gave his experienced partner valuable support claiming three for 33 as he worked up a decent pace.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, a long-standing Glamorgan member, was at Sophia Gardens to see for himself the results of his government's strict social distancing measures at sports grounds.

He watched Middlesex's big names, Stirling and Morgan, add 61 in 8.3 overs for the third wicket in their last game of the competition to launch Middlesex's chase, Stirling hitting three sixes before skying Timm van der Gugten to Ingram at mid-off.

Morgan then dragged a ball from Ruaidhri Smith onto his stumps to put the pressure on the visitors' middle and lower order.

But Glamorgan's seamers all did a tidy job to prevent the visitors from accelerating as van der Gugten took 3-16, well backed up by Dan Douthwaite (2-24),Smith (1-23) and Lloyd (1-18 in three.)

Chris Green's dismissal for 18 marked the end of Middlesex hopes as Glamorgan ran out comfortable winners.

Glamorgan batsman Colin Ingram told BBC Sport Wales:

"First of all I'm really chuffed with the win, sometimes in a campaign there's a moment you need to turn it around and the work the boys have done in terms of team culture made it really difficult for Middlesex.

"Personally it was great to spend some time in the middle again, I haven't done it as often as I would have liked but it felt like it was all coming back together.

"It was great to get an opportunity to go upfront again (opening), there's a lot more instinct involved and I used a few old tricks I remembered so I was glad we had some sort of solid platform.

"I've batted most of my career at three and Marnus is batting beautifully in that position, I've been pestering coaches around the world to get back in the top three so the next position was opening and I grabbed it with both hands."

Middlesex vice-captain Steve Finn told BBC Radio London:

"On the bowling front we could have restricted them to 10 or 15 runs less, and with the bat we lost frequent wickets at important times when we were just about looking set to start again and press on towards the target.

"Credit to Glamorgan, they played a good game especially the way Colin Ingram marshalled their innings, but we're really disappointed to lose.

"(Bowling figures) don't really matter because T20 is such a fickle game, I felt good bowling but it's irrelevant with the result.

"We're disappointed with where we are, but there are positive signs for the rest of the tournament. We've got a few days off now before the Essex game next Thursday (24 June) which is a really important game in front of a home crowd and using home conditions."