Middlesex inspired by McCullum and Malan magic

Brendan McCullum hit his first Middlesex century and Dawid Malan celebrated his call-up to the England T20 squad with both runs and wickets to help their side to victory in Cardiff.

Opening up, McCullum and Malan put on 176 in just over 26 overs but the visitors’ progress was checked by a middle-order collapse, only for a late flourish to take them to almost 300.

Having taken 3-38, Glamorgan’s Colin Ingram then hit 85 but he couldn’t prevent his team suffering their first defeat in this season’s Royal London One-Day Cup.

After McCullum and Malan’s fireworks, Middlesex would have expected to have reached a total in excess of 350.

But from a strong position, they then stuttered as Ingram settled into an accurate 10-over spell.

England one-day captain Eoin Morgan played a laboured innings of 10 from 16 balls, which included eight singles, and Glamorgan’s bowlers were so effective that no boundaries were struck between the 30th and 46th overs.

It needed a partnership of 46 in only 26 balls between Toby Roland Jones and Ollie Rayner to boost Middlesex’s score.

Glamorgan’s openers Jacques Rudolph and David Lloyd made a rapid start, reaching 50 from the first ball of the eighth over.

Lloyd scored 41 from 29 balls before becoming the first of James Fuller’s three victims when he pulled to Paul Stirling on the long leg boundary.

Rudolph and Will Bragg then added a useful 49 before Rudolph was caught behind off James Franklin.

At the halfway stage, Glamorgan required a further 174 with seven wickets in hand but Franklin, obtaining movement from the River End, halted their chase, removing Aneurin Donald.

The hosts needed a further 87 from the last 10 overs but Malan’s occasional leg spin worked before the pacemen did the rest.