By Gareth James
Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard has told his players they need to rapidly improve after the weather helped them escape with a draw in their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Durham in Cardiff.
Glamorgan secured a draw despite being forced to follow on with Kiran Carlson’s hundred the highlight for the home side.
A century stand between Carlson and Timm van der Gugten brought Glamorgan close to the follow-on target but wickets shared amongst the Durham seamers were enough to bowl Glamorgan out for 305 and allow the visitors to ask them to bat again.
In the Glamorgan second innings the Durham bowlers were well on top again as the home side reached 106 for 6 before a heavy rain shower brought play to close with 22 overs left to bowled.
Glamorgan will finish with nine points and Durham with 13, but the real winner was the weather which took almost two days’ play out of this match.
“We’ve been outplayed in the three disciplines over the course of the game and full credit to Durham,” said Maynard.
“We did some decent things against Gloucestershire and a week off may not have helped.
“It’s funny in those situations with the other team in the ascendancy and not much to gain, there were one or two good balls, one or two poor shots. Do you attack to try to get to the total (to avoid the innings defeat), we were caught between two ways of thinking.”
“I said to the lads, we have got away with one so we’ve got to look ahead to the Leicester game after the incredible result there last year. We need to play better cricket than this week.”
Glamorgan had resumed still trailing Durham by 318 runs and 169 runs away from avoiding the follow on.
When Chris Cooke edged a ball through to wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson from Ben Raine only two more runs had been added to the overnight score and Glamorgan were in danger of conceding a massive first-innings lead and having to bat again.
Carlson and van der Gugten batted brilliantly to take their team within touching distance of avoiding the follow on with a partnership of 110, a record ninth-wicket stand in matches between these two teams.
Carlson backed up his hundred in Glamorgan’s opening match against Gloucestershire with another well-constructed century in this fixture.
He looked troubled against the shorter ball, especially from Brydon Carse whose extra pace asked questions throughout the Glamorgan innings, but as ever with Carlson when he is at the crease he keeps the scoreboard ticking over.
119 by Carlson plus 54 from van der Gugten helped Glamorgan to 305 on the final day of their @CountyChamp match against Durham. After following on, the Welsh county were 104-6 when rain stopped play and the game ended in a draw.#GoGlam | #GLAMvDUR
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— Glamorgan Cricket 🏏 (@GlamCricket) April 23, 2023
It seemed as if his journey from the sixties into the eighties happened in a flash.
He slowed down a little on his way to his hundred, but it was another innings that held things together for his team.
Against Gloucestershire he came in to bat with his team in trouble at 35 for 3, here his team were three down for just 60 runs. Both times a century dug his team out of a hole of their own making.
Carlson’s first innings of the day was ended when Liam Trevaskis dismissed him caught-and-bowled for 119.
Durham’s efforts to push for victory were hampered by Australian spinner Matt Kuhnemann’s tight back preventing him from taking the field on the final day, but they still managed to bundle Glamorgan out in time. Van der Gugten was the last man to fall for 54.
Glamorgan started their second innings still 166 behind Durham with 45 overs left to survive. Once again, the Durham seamers asked questions that the Glamorgan top order found hard to answer. Raine trapped Eddie Byrom lbw before Paul Coughlin claimed the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Sam Northeast to leave the home side 40 for 3, still 126 runs away from making Durham bat again.
Carlson couldn’t repeat his first innings-heroics, he was dismissed for 7 in Glamorgan’s second dig when he was caught at leg slip by Graham Clark.
Raine gets in on the act 👀#ForTheNorth pic.twitter.com/sNURlIiCV0
— Durham Cricket (@DurhamCricket) April 23, 2023
David Lloyd made 31 before he was caught hooking on the boundary to give Coughlan his third wicket and leave Glamorgan 66 for 5 with more than 30 overs left to be bowled. That become 96 for 6 when Chris Cooke edged through to the keeper off the bowling of Raine.
Shortly after the fall of Cooke’s wicket the rain brought play to a close with Durham left to rue a missed chance for a win with too much time lost for them to head back north with maximum points.
Glamorgan 305 (Carlson 119, van der Gugten 54, Raine 4-65) and 104 for 6 (Lloyd 31, Coughlin 3-27) f/o drew with Durham 471 for 9 dec (Carse 91, Trevaskis 79, Robinson 73, Jones 69, Borthwick 59, Labuschagne 4-81)