16th June 2022
| Matt Thompson
Llandysul, Ceredigion is the place to be on Sunday as Wales take on Wiltshire in the One Day Cup, in a crucial game which will go some way to determining who qualifies out of NCCA Group 4.
Wiltshire, despite losing to Buckinghamshire earlier in the campaign had the better of Staffordshire last week, which takes them to two wins in addition to the one they collected against Dorset. A win on Sunday would ensure their safe passage through to the quarter final stage and leave Wales - who have won one and lost one so far - teetering on the brink of missing out, needing a favour off someone else in the final round of games next week.
It perhaps isn't ideal that Wales have been forced into further changes for the third consecutive week with Steve Reingold, Greg Smith, Andy Gorvin all unavailable from the trip to Himley a fortnight ago - seamer Jason Foulkes is also unavailable. The good news however, is that the experienced Cameron Herring returns behind the stumps after missing the trip to Staffordshire, as does the wily off spin of Kieran Bull who took 4 wickets in the game that saw Wales ease past Buckinghamshire at Port Talbot. The absence of Reingold and Smith leaves two sizeable holes in the top order which are to be filled with by two debutants in Callum Nicholls and Harry Friend.
CAPTION: Callum Nicholls (St Fagans) will make his white ball Wales NC debut this Sunday.
The Glamorgan academy pair made a solitary championship appearance for Wales against Herefordshire in 2021, but both have been knocking loudly on the door of the selectors with an abundance of runs in the South Wales Premier League. Nicholls in particular has notched two successive hundreds in the last few weeks and averages just over 45 and may open up fellow St Fagans teammate Tom Bevan. Bevan has been in scintillating form of late with successive hundreds for Glamorgan 2nd XI - one in the semi final of the 2nd XI T20 final against Middlesex and one earlier this week against Somerset in the 2nd XI championship. Lorenzo Machado keeps his place in the squad of 13 as does Tegid Phillips with the return of Bull and there is a place for Sam Jardine whose last appearance for Wales was against Bucks in the T20 group stage.
CAPTION: Llandysul are set to make their national counties debut as a host ground.
For Llandysul, Sunday marks a debut hosting national counties cricket. Long renowned as one of the most picturesque grounds in Wales, the club is a strong supporter of junior and pathway cricket and has the highly skilled curation of Mike Turner to produce its pitches. It marks a first return to West Wales (beyond Pontarddulais) for Wales since 2013 where a closely fought 2 run victory was achieved at Cresselly.
Wiltshire will be led by the vastly experienced Ed Young, but will be missing the left arm wrist spin of Jake Lintott who made an appearance last week due to no Vitality Blast cricket for Warwickshire.
Play starts from 11am and admittance for spectators is free.
Wales NC squad from: TR Bevan (St Fagans), SJ Pearce* (Bridgend/Warminster), CL Herring+ (Pontarddulais), HLR Friend (Newport), BJ Morris (Abergavenny), RD Edwards (Neath), SJ Jardine (Neath), CR Brown (Lansdown), CR Nicholls (St Fagans), KA Bull (Potterne), L Machado (Neath), MJ Bevans (Newport), TD Phillips (Cardiff).
Wiltshire from: J Goodwin, JA Stearman, JMA Mynott, EGC Young*, BL Draper+, OJW Meadows, MD Reynolds, ABF Godsal, CD Aubrey, JM King, MJ Henley, A Sen.