T20 Blast: Cooke leads Glamorgan to fourth win at Sussex
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Colin Ingram has 263 runs in five games for Glamorgan this season
Vitality Blast, South Group: Sussex Sharks v Glamorgan |
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Glamorgan 219-5 (20 overs): Cooke 50, Ingram 48, Northeast 32; Crocombe 3-38, Mills 2-36 |
Sussex 187-8 (20 overs): Alsop 58, Burgess 45; McIlroy 3-28, Carlson 2-13 |
Glamorgan (2 pts) beat Sussex by 32 runs |
Glamorgan eased to their fourth win in five games after more blistering batting from Chris Cooke and Colin Ingram.
The in-form pair contributed 50 and 48 respectively to boost Glamorgan to 219-5.
The target always looked beyond Sussex as they slumped to 62-4.
Tom Alsop (58) and Michael Burgess (45) got Sussex going, but they remained behind the run-rate as they finished on 187-8.
Eddie Byrom hit three early boundaries and was dropped off Fynn Hudson-Prentice in a frenetic start before being forced to retire hurt on 17 after being struck on the hip by Tymal Mills.
Kiran Carlson's first two scoring shots were sixes as he reached 26 off 16 balls before skying a catch off Henry Crocombe (3-38), with Glamorgan 73-1 after the power-play.
Sam Northeast looked to be rediscovering his touch as he reached 32 before driving Crocombe to cover, bringing together the Ingram-Cooke partnership.
After a couple of economical overs, the pair hit top gear again with Cooke swatting four muscular sixes while the clinical Ingram bisected the field almost at will, their stand producing 65 in under six overs before they were finally parted having added 261 runs over the course of three games.
Despite two wickets and some canny variations from Mills (2-36), some late blows from Billy Root and Dan Douthwaite took the required run-rate for Sussex to 11 an over as Glamorgan posted their fourth best T20 score and their highest against Sussex.
The pressure showed as Tom Clark was bowled for seven. hoicking at Jamie McIlroy, while Tom Haines was run out for eight while backing up as bowler Douthwaite back-heeled a straight drive onto the stumps.
Captain Carlson deployed his off-breaks to useful effect as Ravi Bopara (10) and Shadab Khan (three) both holed out on the boundary.
Alsop and Burgess added 71 in 7.2 overs to form the back-bone of the innings, but Prem Sisodiya bowled tightly to concede only 34 in four and McIlroy (3-28) claimed two more victims to snuff out any thought of acceleration as Sussex paid the price for their poor start.
Glamorgan kept dropping catches with their fielding not up to the mark for once, and Carlson went off with a dislocated finger.
But Sussex could not take advantage until Nathan McAndrew launched four sixes in his 28 not out off 10 balls to provide some consolation for the sun-soaked crowd.
Sussex have just one win from five, while Glamorgan's main concerns are fitness-related with Byrom and Carlson facing fitness checks, while David Lloyd, Tom Bevan and Timm van der Gugten are still missing for the next two games through injury while Michael Neser's Australia call-up has been confirmed.
Glamorgan next face Surrey at home on Wednesday, 7 June, while Sussex are at Lord's to face Middlesex the following day.
Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson told BBC Sport Wales:
"Chris and Colin are both batting tremendously and we managed to get slightly above-par, and to get it done with the ball even though we were a bit sloppy in the field and didn't bowl as well as we can.
"These days when you play on flat wickets you know you're going to have to get 200 to stay in the game when you bat first, so if that's our mind-set we'll win more than we lose.
"Chris and Colin are playing a different sport at the moment, it's a pleasure to be able to watch it, they're timing the ball and taking great options.
"It was just a feel for it (to bring himself on), a full-toss and a shank gave me my first two wickets (in T20), but it was nice to contribute with the ball, Prem and Pete Hatzoglou bowled beautifully and Jamie McIlroy has been bowling so well."