Glamorgan beat Durham to lift Royal London Cup
Glamorgan ended a 58-year wait to win a first one-day final when they beat Durham by 58 runs to lift the Royal London Cup at Trent Bridge.
Kiran Carlson, chosen to captain the side at just 23 years old after club skipper Chris Cooke was selected by Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred, top scored with 82 from 59 balls as he led the Welsh county to their first silverware since winning the totesport National League in 2004.
There were half-centuries for Sean Dickson (84 not out) and Cameron Bancroft (55) as Durham sought to chase down a target of 297 to win but the northeast side ultimately could not recover from the damage inflicted by off-spinner Andrew Salter, who removed their top three batting threats in reducing them to 74 for four.
Salter – with veteran seamer Michael Hogan one of just two survivors from the side beaten by Nottinghamshire at Lord’s in 2014 in their last appearance in a final – finished with three for 42 as Glamorgan prevailed in a final at the fourth attempt.
After Glamorgan had been 51 for two after 12 overs, Carlson and Nick Selman (36) added 106 in 15.4 overs to give the innings substance, Carlson going past his previous List A best of 63 as he hit 10 fours and three sixes.
Potts rocked the Welsh county three wickets in eight balls as Selman mistimed a pull to mid-on, Billy Root was lbw first ball and Carlson fell to a beauty that found the edge. From 157 for two, Glamorgan were 160 for five.
But they recovered handsomely to post their highest score in the competition this year, Salter hitting 33 off 22 balls as the last 13 overs added 106 despite the loss of four more wickets, although a finger injury suffered by Borthwick fielding off his own bowling did not help Durham’s cause.
Prolific Durham openers Graham Clark and Alex Lees, boasting a partnership average in the competition of almost 93, were parted at 47 this time, Carlson turning to Salter’s off-spin in the 11th over and seeing an immediate dividend as his fourth delivery went past the bat of left-hander Lees to clip off stump.
Clark, well set on 40 from 54, perished trying to hit the spinner over the midwicket boundary and things unravelled further for Durham as Borthwick chipped a Weighell slower ball gently to mid-on and David Bedingham followed Clark in lofting Salter straight to deep midwicket.
Bancroft and Dickson added 85 to bring the target down to 138 from 17 overs but Bancroft then pulled off-spinner Steven Reingold straight to deep backward square to go for 55 and though Dickson was still there at the end he ran out of partners as Joe Cooke and Lukas Carey weighed in with two wickets each before 40-year-old Hogan had Chris Rushworth caught behind to spark the celebrations.