Dropped catch haunts Surrey as Dunkley ends Quarantine Cup campaign winless following defeat by Glamorgan

Had it not been for a feeble spill at long-off in the first innings, Surrey may well have left the Adelaide Oval with a consolation victory at the end of a trying season

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Adelaide Oval: Glamorgan 61, Surrey 49-2 - Glamorgan won by 12 runs 

Surrey’s Quarantine Cup campaign ended with four defeats from four games as a dropped catch proved hugely to Sophia Dunkley and her players against Glamorgan.

Despite showing tremendous improvement with the bat from her previous outing, in which she was bowled out for just 9 by Imran Qayyum and Kent, Dunkley ultimately found the task of chasing down 62 too steep.

Had it not been for a feeble spill at long-off in the first innings, however, Surrey may well have left the Adelaide Oval with a consolation victory at the end of a trying season.

Jordan Clark was the culprit, giving Dan Douthwaite a life, and the youngster made him pay with a brutal 21 from 8 deliveries which gave Glamorgan a platform they could happily defend.

Surrey made their intentions known early in the match, as Sam Curran removed the dangerous David Lloyd, caught at square leg by Ryan Patel, before Marnus Labuschagne chipped a tame chance to midwicket - the Australian not so much gifting his wicket away but wrapping it up in fancy paper and tying it in a frilly bow.

Labuschagne had previously clipped a towering 130-metre six (which landed in the stands in the newly elongated Adelaide bowl) over fine leg before delivering a picture-perfect cover drive, but he greeted Jade Dernbach’s loosener with casual arrogance and only found the waiting hands of Jason Roy.

When Billy Root suckered Chris Cooke into turning for a second run which was never there from the final ball of the second over, Glamorgan found themselves 20 for 3 and swimming upstream - the long wait since their first outing in the Quarantine Cup seemingly leaving them undercooked.

Dunkley’s trademark tactic of employing unexpected bowlers paid off once again when she brought Scott Borthwick into the attack.

Borthwick, for some reason tweaking offspin instead of the leggies for which he was once upon a time picked by England, followed in the footsteps of Mark Stoneman by befuddling a batsman - Charlie Hemphrey the unfortunate soul who won’t have heard the last of losing his off peg to a part-timer come the team Zoom conference after the game.

Douthwaite promptly smacked his first ball for six but when he picked out Clark down the ground from the second, it appeared as though Surrey would be left chasing just 31 for the win.

Not to be.

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Clark fumbled, Douthwaite went ballistic in the backend of the innings, and Glamorgan ended up with 61.

It knocked the stuffing out of Surrey like a right hook to the Christmas turkey.

The Oval outfit looked much more stable at the wicket on this occasion, but they struggled with the required run rate and after three overs, needing 12 an over, they were just about managing eights.

Something had to give, and it was Roy, who picked out wide midwicket off Graham Wagg.

Sam Curran, who was given two lives earlier in the innings, chopped a simple catch to cover to give Wagg his second and, with 35 needed from the final over, Surrey were done.

“We came back quite strong towards the back of our batting innings and we wanted to be more ruthless, but we left ourselves too much to do,” Dunkley said afterwards.

“Maybe we could have picked our team a bit better in the first two games. We got it right going into the last two games, but it was too late.

“We tried to protect our big guns at the start but in future we’re going to have to bring them out as soon as possible.”

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