CARDIFF, Wales, CMC – Deposed West Indies Test captain Darren Sammy made a winning start to life at Glamorgan when he helped the Welsh county to an exciting five-wicket victory over Sussex in the English Twenty20 Blast here yesterday.
Set 179 for victory, Glamorgan levelled the scores with three balls left in the game, with Sammy on strike. However, fast bowler Yasir Arafat kept the Windward Islands all-rounder scoreless off the next two balls with brilliant yorkers to bring the game down to the last ball.
Sammy then kept his composure, skying the last ball into the offside and scrambling two runs with Chris Cooke, to take Glamorgan over the line.
He finished on nine not out from as many balls while Cooke secured Man-of-the-Match honours for his superb unbeaten 65 off 31 deliveries, with 11 fours and a six. The pair added 37 from 21 balls for the fifth wicket.
South African opener Jacques Rudolph had earlier stroked 50 from 44 balls to set the tone for the run chase.
Sent in at the SWALEC Stadium, Sussex got joint top scores of 39 from captain Ed Joyce and England wicketkeeper Matt Prior, to boost their innings.
Sammy produced a tight three-over spell, conceding just 18 runs.
At Headingly in Leeds, Leeward Islands left-hander Chesney Hughes failed with 11 as his Derbyshire side went down by eight wickets to Yorkshire.