Maiden ton no consolation for Powell

Michael Powell scored almost half his side's score with 114 © Getty Images

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Michael Powell ended his decade-long search for a maiden one-day hundred - but was far from satisfied after he finished on the losing side for Glamorgan Dragons.

Powell's unbeaten 114 carried the hosts to 229 for five at Cardiff, where Hampshire then completed a nervy run chase with four wickets and almost two overs to spare.

For 31-year-old Powell - and Glamorgan cricket manager Matthew Maynard - there was no disguising the decidedly mixed feelings as they reflected on what might have been.

“It's nice to get the monkey off my back - but I'd rather have one-day wins than one-day hundreds,” said Powell, whose team are now largely resigned to having little chance of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy.

“I'd much prefer a win to a personal milestone any day of the week,” added the number three, who shared a second-wicket stand of 145 with Matthew Wood (64) but then saw Michael Carberry (65) set Hampshire on course for victory.

Maynard echoed Powell's sentiments.

“It won't feel the same for him tonight. Getting a hundred and ending up on the losing side is never too much fun,” he predicted.

“It is a milestone for him. It's been a long time coming - and we hope we'll see a few more now."

The prospects of that are good, according to Powell - who was confident he had a three-figure performance in him on his current form.

“I've felt happy with my game this year but haven't quite kicked on to those big scores,” he said.

“I always felt there was a hundred round the corner."

Michael Powell made a fifty for England A against Sri Lanka's second-string in March 2005

It all went wrong for Glamorgan when they failed to make the most of Powell and Wood's partnership - making only 52 runs in their last 10 overs.

“We had a few younger players coming in during that time, and they will learn from those experiences,” Powell explained.

A rush of four wickets for 17 runs destroyed their momentum, and Maynard made no excuses.

"We got 64 runs in our last 14 overs – that's just not good enough," he spelled out. "That cost us the game.

"With nine still in the shed at that stage, you'd be looking for 100 (more runs).

"We got into a great position, and one more partnership would have seen us get a good total."

Maynard still believes the extra runs batting first could have altered the equation.

"It may have been enough, maybe not," he pondered. "I do think the wicket did improve through the day.

"Obviously Hampshire bowlers had a little less pace on the whole than our guys, but it did quicken up when they batted."

While Glamorgan consider giving more chances to the emerging players in their remaining South/West division matches, the Hawks can still just about hope to make the last eight.

But a more burning question for them revolves around the intentions of captain Dimitri Mascarenhas and whether he is still ready to press the point with chairman Rod Bransgrove over his ambition to return to the Indian Premier League at the end of this month.

Mascarenhas was giving little away tonight but did confirm he is due to discuss the matter with his boss soon.

“I'll be speaking to Rod in the next couple of days to see what we want to do,” he said equivocally.