Match Reports

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire

Day 3

Gloucestershire completed the double over Glamorgan in the County Championship with 10.2 overs of the day remaining. Glamorgan were again let down by their batting with their batsmen lacking technique, application and for the fourth successive innings failed to bat for more than 65 overs.

Gloucestershire added a further 16 runs before they were dismissed for 363 in their first innings, a lead of 143 with David Payne(67no) achieving his career best score, and Michael Hogan, after taking the last two wickets, returning creditable figures of 25.1-6-36-5.
Only once in the last 12 innings have Glamorgan’s openers shared a fifty run partnership, and they were again in trouble when Owen Morgan was bowled by Josh Shaw in the sixth over, and he was quickly followed four balls later, when Nick Selman was caught by wicketkeeper Mustard off Payne.

David Lloyd, who has been short of runs recently, again failed when he wafted at a ball outside the off stump, but Aneurin Donald, after scoring four, had the distinction of becoming the youngest Glamorgan player to score 1000 runs in a season. Donald and Bragg put on 45 for the fourth wicket, but Donald became Jack Taylor’s first victim when he edged an arm ball to slip, before Kieran Carlson collected a pair when he became Mustard’s third victim behind the stumps.

Graham Wagg soon made his intentions clear by driving Taylor’s off spin for successive sixes, but the bowler got his revenge when he bowled Wagg for a breezy 21. Apart from Bragg, who scored with 52 that included six boundaries, there was little resistance from Glamorgan’s batsmen until Mark Wallace and stand in captain Hogan put on 58 for the final wicket.

Needing to score 90 to win, Chris Dent and Gareth Roderick made a cautious start before Dent drove Wagg, who had reverted to left arm spin, over long on for six, and Roderick struck Carlson for three overs in his first over. They then hurried along at four runs an over, with Roderick reaching fifty from 56 balls with the captain hitting the winning runs in the twentieth over.

Richard Dawson the Gloucestershire coach said after his team’s 10 wicket win that ”a lot of people contributed to the win, especially David Payne and Hamish Marshall. Payne led the attack in both innings, while his 67 not out enabled us to get 143 run lead on first innings”. Dawson was also pleased on how they kept putting pressure on the opposition” we kept it up for three days and after being 35 for three in the first innings, it was a great effort to score 363. After losing the T20 quarter final, it was a great confidence booster to come back and play so well in the last two championship games.”

Day 2

Hamish Marshall’s fourth championship century of the season - his 22nd for his county- and an unbeaten 58 from David Payne has enabled Gloucestershire to gain a lead of 127, with their score on 347 for 8 .

With the ninth wicket pair of Payne and Josh Shaw having already shared an unbroken partnership of 56 for the ninth wicket, Glamorgan have much to do if they are to avoid losing their seventh championship game of a disappointing season.

Marshall returns to New Zealand at the end of the season after spending eleven years in the West Country, and his innings from 189 balls - although he did give a difficult chance to wicketkeeper Mark Wallace on 40- rescued Gloucestershire after they had earlier slumped to 38 for 3. He also found a staunch ally in George Hankins, the 19 yr old England Under19 batsman who stayed with Marshall for 47 overs to share an impressive partnership of 120 for the fourth wicket.

Resuming at their overnight score of 62 for 3, Marshall and Hankins batted throughout the morning session, and were not separated until 20 minutes after lunch when Hankins feathered a catch to the wicketkeeper off Graham Wagg. Hankins was at the crease for three and a quarter hours for 43, striking just five boundaries, but he was the perfect foil for Marshall, and with more experience at county level he will only prosper.

Phil Mustard also put in a notable performance, adding 56 with Marshall for the fifth wicket, but when Michael Hogan took the new ball, Mustard soon edged to slip. Marshall’s innings ended in Hogan’s next over, when he was adjudged lbw, and was either unhappy with the decision or disappointed with himself as he took some time to drag himself away from the crease.

Craig Miles and David Payne then strengthened their team’s position with a stand of 60 for the eighth wicket, although Wallace missed a stumping off Kieran Carlson with Payne on 20. Shortly afterwards Carlson was rewarded when Miles, who made 34, chipped a low catch to Wagg at short mid-wicket, but Payne further frustrated Glamorgan by reaching an impressive 50 shortly before the close.

Although Payne and Josh Shaw scored at a slow rate, their approach was certainly justified with the game only at the half way stage.

Marshall, who scored his second century in three games, said “It’s always nice to get into a run of form, especially on a good pitch, but the game has a long way to go and we would ideally like to get a big lead and put Glamorgan under some scoreboard pressure”.

He also praised George Hankins, saying he “has a big future, is never overawed and just gets on with it”

Day 1

Glamorgan would have been in deep trouble had Australian born Nick Selman not scored 101, almost half the team’s total, in an attacking innings that included 14 fours from 144 balls. Selman, who last month carried his bat for an undefeated hundred against Northants, looked as if would emulate that performance until he was bowled the delivery after reaching his century. He will hope that this innings will not start a run of poor form- following his first century he suffered a run of four ducks.

After an uncontested toss, Mark Wallace – in the absence of Jacques Rudolph, who had a sore neck- opened the innings with Selman, but Wallace was out in the 7th over, leg before to David Payne, which prompted a spectator to shout behind the arm” that was a poor decision umpire”. Selman had started with a flurry of boundaries, and although Will Bragg and David Lloyd were both out cheaply, Glamorgan had reached 130 for 3 at lunch, with Selman and Aneurin Donald in full flow- Selman having reached fifty with ten boundaries.

The fourth wicket pair had put on 65, before Donald, who was only four runs short of his thousand first class runs for the season, top edged an intended pull to mid-on. Kieran Carlson, playing his second championship game, was out without scoring runs, and after Selman was dismissed, Craig Meschede was also dismissed by Matt Taylor. Graham Wagg, meanwhile, played a watchful innings on a pitch that was seamer friendly, and had to contend with some accurate bowling from the Gloucestershire seam quartet. Wagg and Timm Van Der Gugten added a useful 38 for the ninth wicket, enabling Glamorgan to gain a batting point, before they were both dismissed by Craig Miles who, with Taylor, took four wickets.

Gloucestershire had to face 31 overs after tea, but soon lost Gareth Roderick who edged Van Der Gugten’s fifth ball to second slip. The Glamorgan seamers also bowled a tight line, but it was a short delivery that undid Chris Dent, who tamely guided the ball to square leg. Will Tavare, who had laboured 67 balls for his 18, was the next to go when he was lbw to Michael Hogan, who was leading Glamorgan in Rudolph’s absence. Hamish Marshall and George Hankins, who was the Player of the Tournament in the recent Under 19 series against Sri Lanka, guided Gloucestershire to the close with the visitors 62 for 3,- a deficit of 158 runs.