Well, I’m still in the office after a very busy afternoon of pre-examination stuff. It’s raining very heavily outside so I thought I’d dash off a post while I hope for the deluge to abate.
I was busy yesterday afternoon too, but during the meeting I was at I kept a tab on my web browser open to follow the final afternoon of Glamorgan’s first County Championship match of the season against Gloucestershire, over the River Severn in Bristol. When I got back to the office I continued to follow on the Radio. It turned out to be quite an exciting finish.
Having bowled out Gloucestershire for 236 in the first innings and scored 522 for 9 declared in reply, Glamorgan then had Gloucestershire in deep trouble at 133 for 5 going into the final day. An innings victory for Glamorgan looked a racing certainty but Gloucestershire’s lower-order played very well indeed, not only defending capably but scoring runs reasonably quickly (no doubt against very attacking fields); for the first three days the scoring rate was less than three an over, but that’s pretty typical for the county championship. When Gloucestershire were finally all out they had reached 372, requiring Glamorgan to bat again.
The target of 83 to win off 21 overs looks on paper to have been easy, but the weather was drawing in and there was no chance of all 21 overs actually being bowled. In the gathering gloom, Glamorgan’s batsmen decided to come out with all guns blazing to try to rattle the runs off before bad light stopped play. Selman and Murphy put on an opening partnership of 50 off just 7 overs, but then a flurry of wickets fell and suddenly it was 67 for 4. Eventually, though, Glamorgan recovered their composure and Aneurin Donald finished the game by hitting Worrall for six. Glamorgan won by six wickets.
Anyway, that was a nice start to the County Championship season for Glamorgan – they didn’t play last weekend, which was the first round of matches for most other clubs. Their next game is away to Middlesex (at Lord’s). I would like to have gone to at least one day of that, but unfortunately I’m busy this weekend with other things. Shaun Marsh and David Lloyd both scored centuries in his match, and Marchant de Lange took five wickets in the first innings as well as scoring 50 not out. Hopefully they will take strength from that performance and improve their County Championship position compared to last year.
Now, it’s stopped raining so I can go home. Goodnight all!
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