AN unbeaten partnership of 85 between 21-year-old Brad Taylor and Gareth Berg enabled Hampshire to win by four wickets and secure their place in the knockout stages of the Royal London OneDay Cup.

They required 228 to win after hosts Glamorgan had underachieved in their innings. And although Hampshire faltered in mid-innings, the unbroken seventh-wicket partnership guided them safely to their target with 6.4 overs to spare.

Glamorgan, put in on a slow St Helen’s pitch, made a steady start with Nick Selman and Aneurin Donald putting on 48 in 11 overs before Donald pulled a short ball to mid-wicket in Berg’s first over.

Mason Crane was on in the 11th over and took wickets in his fourth and sixth overs. Selman nicked one to the wicketkeeper, then Kiran Carlson was caught at backward point.

David Lloyd was also dismissed by Berg and, after their promising start, the home team had lost four wickets for 45 runs.

Colin Ingram and Graham Wagg repaired the early damage with some sensible shot selection – Ingram reaching his third half-century in this year’s competition.

After the sixth wicket pair had put on 56, Ingram was unlucky to be caught on the mid-wicket boundary off a long hop from Crane, who then took his fourth wicket when Andrew Salter – four balls later – tapped a full-toss back to the bowler.

Crane ended with four for 60 from his 10 overs, but the England spinner was rather fortunate with his victims guilty of some reckless shot selection.

After Wagg was caught on the long-off boundary, the tail wagged as Lukas Carey and Timm van der Gugten put on 30 runs before Glamorgan were all out with eight balls remaining.

Needing to score at the relatively modest rate of four and a half an over, Hampshire lost Rilee Rossouw in Timm van der Gugten’s second over, with Donald holding on to a steepler on the mid-wicket boundary.

James Vince soon made his intentions clear by advancing down the pitch to Carey, striking him for two straight boundaries, and when Ruaidhri Smith replaced Carey, he was punished for three fours in his first two overs.

Van der Gugten then claimed his second wicket when Tom Alsop struck a short ball to midwicket, where Selman held on to a low one-handed catch. Vince continued to attack but, after scoring 41 from 38 balls, with six fours, he was leg before attempting to turn Salter’s off-spin to the on-side.

After Jimmy Adams chopped on, and Joe Weatherley was caught behind from Wagg’s first ball, Hampshire had stumbled, and when Lewis McManus was also caught by the wicketkeeper, the visitors were in some trouble at 144-6.

Much depended on the seventh wicket pair and they duly responded by playing watchfully at the start, before accelerating towards the end of the run chase. Taylor top scored with an unbeaten 54 and with Berg also reaching a half-century, the two all-rounders also shared six wickets to produce match-winning performances.

Berg said: “That was a massive win for us. We are in a run of form and it will make it a bit easier for our last game on Tuesday.

It was a good pitch at Swansea today and we thought a par score was around the 280 mark. The odd ball was turning and Wagg bowled particularly well with his cutters.

“It was a testing time at 144-6 but it’s always good to bat with Brad Taylor. At the end, we had overs to spare when we reached the victory target.”