One Day Cup: Glamorgan beat Northants in Cardiff run-feast

Sam Northeast in action for Glamorgan against Northamptonshire

A century from Sam Northeast spearheaded Glamorgan's dash to a five wicket victory over Northants, reaching 343-5 with 16 balls to spare.

Eddie Byrom hit 50 and Colin Ingram 69 to give the hosts a flying start.

They lost quick wickets in the middle before Billy Root and Alex Horton added a vital 81 unbeaten.

Northants piled up 340-5 in their 50 overs thanks to centuries from Ricardo Vasconcelos and Rob Keogh, plus 88 from Sam Whiteman.

Glamorgan finish their campaign in fourth in their group with nine points, one more than in 2022, while Northants are sixth with six points.

The visitors started positively after choosing to bat, helped by Vasconcelos being dropped behind off Jamie McIlroy in the first over, and reached 60 without loss in the first powerplay.

Whiteman led the charge with some big blows off Ruaidhri Smith upfront, smashing 10 fours and three sixes as he faced just 75 balls.

He eventually pulled Ben Kellaway to mid-wicket, while the left-arm spin of Prem Sisodiya briefly imposed some control and dismissed Justin Broad for nine.

Vasconcelos and Keogh soon had the run-rate mounting again as they joined Whiteman in registering their highest scores of a troubled batting campaign on the way to the Steelbacks' highest ever limited overs score against Glamorgan.

Vasconcelos reached three figures off 110 balls, his second hundred in successive years against Glamorgan, before being bowled by Smith.

But Keogh laid about him in the final overs as he put a toothless bowling attack to the sword, reaching his century off 69 balls before Andy Gorvin belatedly claimed two wickets in two balls.

Bat continued to dominate ball as Northeast and Byrom found the gaps with ease in a stand of 108 in only 13 overs, Byrom posting the day's quickest 50 before steering James Sales to diving wicketkeeper Lewis MacManus.

The second-wicket stand was also worth 108 as Northeast and Ingram went at a run a ball with the visitors doing their best to contain the rate.

Northeast was bowled by the visitors' best bowler Jack White after hitting 11 fours and two sixes in another stylish effort, while Ingram enjoyed the day's biggest blow as he planted Gus Miller out of the ground at long-on before chipping a return catch to Tom Taylor.

Taylor struck again as Kiran Carlson holed out at deep square for 28 and Kellaway fell to Newport-born leg-spinner Alex Russell for three, to tilt the game back towards Northants at 262-5.

But the experience of Root, who had guided Glamorgan to victory at Somerset two days earlier, was still there to reassure Glamorgan.

Root (39*) was able to kick-start the stalling chase before teenage 'keeper Alex Horton took over, muscling a series of boundaries through the leg-side in his highest first-team score of 44 not out to steer them home with 16 balls to spare.

Glamorgan batter Sam Northeast told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a good pitch and the ball came on quite nicely. Looking at the Welsh Fire game the other day (on the same pitch) we thought it might be quite tricky, but the pitch played really well after holding up a bit in the first couple of overs.

"I've had a few scores without going on in this competition so it was nice to go on and hopefully build for the rest of the season.

"It was a good run-chase and a good day overall in the end, disappointing to not qualify because both years we've played some good stuff but not got over the line."

Northants all-rounder Rob Keogh told BBC Radio Northampton:

"We decided as it was a used pitch to have a bat but it did get better through the day. When the sun came out after the drizzle, it took the pace out of it and it was tough to bowl on at the end.

"It was a different order with Sam (Whiteman) at the top and we tried to go out as a batting group to take away the fear of failure. We saw two centuries and an 88 so it was nice in that respect.

"It's disappointing not to qualify, we tried to play some positive cricket and we felt we had the players to do that but it just didn't work out."