Sussex 200 (47.2 overs)
Glamorgan 203-9 (48.3 overs)
Glamorgan win by one wicket
Glamorgan kept their perfect record in this year’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup intact thanks to a remarkable one-wicket win over Sussex Sharks at the Gnoll in Neath.
Sussex made 200 all out thanks to a brilliant eighth-wicket stand between Archie Lenham and Bertie Foreman.
And the two youngsters were also remarkable in tandem with the ball as Sussex came so close to claiming a thrilling win.
Glamorgan’s chase had started brightly but a top-order collapse brought Sussex back into this match.
Eddie Byrom made the highest score with 51 and Billy Root made 48 batting with the tail. But it was the last-wicket pair of Andy Gorvin and Jamie McIlroy who took them home.
Glamorgan now sit at the top of Group B with four wins out of four and Sussex remain winless in this year’s tournament having lost by one wicket for the second time this season.
As was the case with Wednesday’s match on this ground against Notts Outlaws, Glamorgan won the toss and chose to bowl. And once again the Glamorgan seamers were on top from the very start of the match.
It took 23 balls for Sussex to score their first runs as Timm van der Gugten and McIlroy got appreciable movement with the new ball.
Van der Gugten has been extremely miserly in this competition so far, with 11 of his 37 overs being maidens. It was him who made the first breakthrough when he had Tom Clark caught behind for 14.
That wicket brought together Tom Haines and Henry Rogers who put on 59, the highest stand of the Sussex innings.
Haines fell for 44 off the bowling of Douthwaite and that began a collapse that saw Sussex lose five wickets for 15 runs.
It was Douthwaite and van der Gugten who were the chief destroyers as they claimed seven Sussex wickets between them. Douthwaite’s return of four for 44 was the second best in his List A career.
When Daniel Ibrahim was caught at slip off a ball from Ben Kellaway, which the ambidextrous spinner sent down with his left arm, Sussex had stumbled to 130-7.
The partnership of 51 between Lenham and Foreman brought some respectability to the total before another cluster of wickets left Sussex bowled out for 200.
The Glamorgan innings started brightly and they made steady progress towards their target with the first 10 overs bringing 65 runs for no loss.
Byrom, who made a career best 123 not out on this ground on Wednesday, raced past 50 from just 41 balls as he took on an inexperienced Sussex attack.
It looked as if Glamorgan would be heading towards a straightforward win and, with drizzle in the air, they were a long way ahead of the DLS score.
As was the case in the Sussex innings, a flurry of wickets changed things. Glamorgan lost five wickets for 42 runs, with Ibrahim bowling Tom Bevan and Kiran Carlson from consecutive balls. It was the moment when this contest became very interesting.
Billy Root took on the responsibility of holding things together for Glamorgan in the face of some excellent spin bowling from Lenham and Foreman.
The pair combined for 20 overs that went for 60 runs and claimed four wickets and they were the ones who kept the pressure on throughout this Glamorgan innings.
When Root fell for 48 the match was on a knife edge and it took a nervy last-wicket stand between McIlroy and Gorvin for Glamorgan to sneak over the line.
