Derbyshire beaten by defending champions Glamorgan

Derbyshire’s Royal London Cup campaign got off to a difficult start, as they were beaten by defending 50-over champions, Glamorgan. 

Timm van der Gugten took 4-41 and Jamie McIlroy 2-13 as Derbyshire were bowled out for 110 after Glamorgan won the toss in a game reduced to 47 overs by rain with Mattie McKiernan’s 43 off 56 balls the only innings of substance.

Glamorgan slipped to 28 for 2 but skipper Kiran Carlson’s unbeaten 54 off 53 balls and Colin Ingram with 30 not out took the visitors to 112 – 2 with 25 overs to spare.

Derbyshire never recovered from losing three wickets in the first four overs on a humid and breezy morning.

McIlroy and van der Gugten got the ball to swing in good bowling conditions and Derbyshire’s chances of setting a competitive total were all but over after the first powerplay.

Billy Godleman went in the second over when his attempt to turn van der Gugten through midwicket ended in the hands of mid on and Luis Reece quickly followed, edging a loose drive behind.

Harry Came was lbw half-forward and although Tom Wood drove van der Gugten over cover for the first boundary in the sixth over, he was brilliantly caught by Chris Cooke diving to his right when he cut hard at van der Gugten.

After a short rain delay, Brooke Guest drove a return catch back to McIlroy leaving Derbyshire’s hopes of respectability resting with Anuj Dal and McKiernan.

The pair almost doubled the score but Dal swatted Joe Cooke to cover and when Mark Watt was bowled by David Llloyd, Derbyshire were sinking fast at 62 for 7.

Ben Aitchison clipped Lloyd to long leg where Joe Cooke tok a well judged catch just inside the rope leaving Sam Conners to help McKiernan get Derbyshire into three figures.

McKiernan pulled Dan Douthwaite for four and drove van der Gugten for another boundary but he fell short of what would have been a first one-day 50 when he drove Douthwaite to cover.

The innings ended when Conners edged a drive at van der Gugten which left Glamorgan to chase down what looked like a straight-forward target.

They got there in relative comfort but only after losing Lloyd and Sam Northeast inside the first 10 overs.

Lloyd got a leading edge to Aitchison and was caught at point before Northeast, who scored a quadruple century just over a week ago, drove at Conners and was well caught by Wood diving across at second slip.

Another wicket then might have sowed some seeds of doubt in the Glamorgan camp but Ingram and Carlson restored order before accelerating towards an impressive victory.

After the game, McKiernan said: “We’ve got to draw a line under that and move on to the game on Friday. It’s a disappointing start to the campaign but it doesn’t mean we can’t bounce back.

“There was a little bit in the wicket early on but I think we’re disappointed as a batting group not to get a competitive score.”

One-day cricket is back in the height of summer!

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