Surrey 141 (Jacks 40, Salter 4-23, de Lange 4-26) beat Glamorgan 44 (Curran 3-3, Batty 3-7, Tahir 3-8)
Surrey’s second near-25,000 sell-out crowd in three days at the Kia Oval roared their approval as Tom Curran took a spectacular hat-trick in his opening new-ball over to set up a dramatic 97-run victory against Glamorgan, who subsequently crashed to 44 all out in 12.5 overs – their lowest total in T20 cricket.
South Africa legspinner Imran Tahir then took a triple-wicket maiden himself, removing Graham Wagg, Andrew Salter and Marchant de Lange in the space of five balls in an almost-as-remarkable 12th over, to send Glamorgan hurtling from 40 for 6 to 40 for 9.
Offspinner Gareth Batty quickly completed the rout, bowling last man Michael Hogan in the next over to finish with figures of 3 for 7. Tahir’s figures were 3 for 8 and Curran’s 3 for 3 in two overs. It was Surrey’s first Vitality Blast win of the season, in their third south group game, while Glamorgan remained winless after three matches.
Curran’s memorable hat-trick came when he first bowled David Lloyd for 4 with a beauty and then, with the fourth ball of the second over of Glamorgan’s innings, had Colin Ingram held by Rikki Clarke at slip as he tried to force into the off side. Remarkably, new batsman Billy Root also edged to Clarke next ball in an almost carbon copy of Ingram’s dismissal – leaving Curran to sprint away in celebration towards the Peter May Stand, followed by his jubilant team-mates.
When Surrey captain Jade Dernbach then had Owen Morgan caught at the wicket for 2, in his second over with the new ball, Glamorgan were a sickly 9 for 4. And it got worse for the Welsh county when, in the eighth over, Pakistan left-hander Fakhar Zaman lofted Batty to long-on after making just 17 on his Glamorgan debut.
From 33 for 5, Glamorgan’s chances were slim, but it was still shocking when Chris Cooke then holed out at 39 for 6 and they fell away so rapidly against the spin of Tahir and Batty to what was a humiliating defeat.
Offspinner Salter had earlier taken a career-best 4 for 23 as Surrey were bowled out for 141, with Glamorgan putting in a fine performance in the field with some excellent catching and ground fielding.
Fast bowler de Lange also impressed, taking the last three Surrey wickets in five balls in the final over to finish with 4 for 26. De Lange bowled Dernbach for 2, removed Batty next ball when the veteran former Surrey captain hit his own wicket as he tried to make room to cut and, from the final ball of the innings, had Tahir caught at mid-off.
It was Salter’s four-wicket burst in mid-innings, however, which derailed Surrey’s effort after Will Jacks and Aaron Finch had added 61 in 6.4 overs for the second wicket after de Lange had dismissed opener Mark Stoneman in the second over, caught for 5 at third man from a slashed square cut that he could not keep down.
From 73 for 1 they slumped to 99 for 6 after Jacks’ sparkling 26-ball 40, which featured two sixes and four fours, had ended with a tickle to keeper Cooke from a leg-side ball from Wagg that would have been a wide had the batsman not touched it.
Salter then struck with his first delivery, at the start of the 10th over, to have Finch brilliantly caught on the leg-side boundary by Root for 28 from 20 balls. From the last ball of that over, he forced Clarke to chip a tame return catch and, in his next over, Curran also fell for 1 when he was superbly held by a diving Lloyd at extra cover.
Ollie Pope went for 12, miscuing a reverse flick at Salter to short third man, and Surrey’s seventh wicket pair of Jordan Clark and Liam Plunkett tried hard to put some sort of total on the board – dealing mainly in ones and well-run twos in a stand of 38 in five overs.
Plunkett did, though, hit Salter’s final ball for six over long-off in his 18, which ended in the 19th over when he lofted Wagg’s left-arm medium pace to long-on. Wagg took 2 for 28 and Clark ended unbeaten on 26, from 27 balls.
The match had begun 40 minutes late at 7.10pm, initially because of a threat of lightning in steamy temperatures, which remained in the low 30s centigrade despite an early evening build-up of cloud that then, five minutes before play was originally due to start at 6.55pm, produced a short but torrential downpour which sent many people in the capacity crowd – Surrey have attracted full houses for both this week’s T20 home games against Middlesex and Glamorgan – scurrying for cover.
Play was also held up for a few minutes towards the latter part of Surrey’s innings when a fox ran on to the outfield, and would not move. It also made a deposit on to the Oval turf, which itself had to be removed with a shovel after the animal had been driven away by stewards.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo