T20 Blast: Yorkshire thrash Glamorgan as North Group make it four wins from four in quarter-finals
Yorkshire brushed aside Glamorgan on Thursday evening to make it four wins from four for the North Group in the T20 Blast quarter-finals.
A record Cardiff crowd of over 10,000 had to come with the hope of seeing Glamorgan make their first T20 finals day since 2004. Instead they watched as the hosts were bowled out for just 90 en route to a crushing 90-run defeat, with leg-spinner Adil Rashid taking four for 26.
England all-rounder David Willey was the star of the night with the bat, blasting 79 from 38 balls to help Yorkshire reach 180 for eight off their 20 overs. They looked set for a lot more while Willey was at the crease, but it ended up being more than enough as Glamorgan crumbled in front of their home support.
It could have been a dream start for Glamorgan but Adam Lyth was dropped on nought by Jacques Rudolph off Shaun Tait.
That set the tone for the Glamorgan fielding effort, which was a long way off the standards they have set for themselves in this competition.
As it was, that drop did not prove too costly, with Rudolph redeeming himself when he held the catch to dismiss Lyth for eight when he spooned a catch to mid-on, but there were numerous misfields from the home team throughout a chastening night.
While Lyth did not last long, his opening partner Willey was hitting the ball to all parts on his way to a season-best T20 score.
He smashed six sixes and seven fours as he took the Glamorgan attack apart, with Yorkshire racing along at more than 10 an over. Willey departed in the 12th over when he was bowled by Colin Ingram's leg-spin to leave the visitors 134 for three.
Ingram's introduction to the attack slowed the run-rate. It had looked like Yorkshire would get well over 200 with Willey in full flow.
Willey was the first of four Ingram wickets as he picked up career-best figures of four for 32. His previous best was also this season, when he claimed three for 20 in the group-stage match against Somerset. He snared three of his wickets in the space of 10 balls.
Yorkshire's lack of batting, with Travis Head having been called up by Australia and their England players taking part in the Test against Pakistan, began to tell as they lost six wickets for 35 runs.
It looked like Glamorgan may have brought themselves back into the game, and if they had batted to their potential they may have had a chance of doing just that. But instead they fell apart when the pressure was on.
The Glamorgan innings began with David Lloyd edging a ball from Tim Bresnan onto his stumps for a platinum duck, and it did not really improve from there. They reached the end of their batting powerplay with the score at 34 for five, with danger-man Ingram gone for 16 off the bowling of Matthew Waite.
Glamorgan's chances had all but gone when Ingram departed, but what followed was shambolic. They finished with exactly half what Yorkshire had put on the board - Rudolph (26), Timm van der Gugten (13) and Michael Hogan (12) were the only other home players to reach double figures - as they were bowled out for their lowest ever T20 total.