A spell of 3/16 in 22 balls by Marchant de Lange plus three wickets for Andrew Salter saw Glamorgan dismiss Derbyshire for 160 on the third day of their rain affected floodlit Specsavers County Championship match against Glamorgan at The SSE SWALEC. This left the Welsh county a target of 212 but they lost Jacques Rudolph to the final ball of the ball as they ended 0/1
Close of Play Report
Derbyshire were 72/4 at the interval, and 123 runs to the good with six second innings remaining as Michael Hogan and Andrew Salter continued the bowling duties. Luis Reece began by on-driving Hogan before attempting to paddle-sweep Salter and surviving some l.b.w. appeals. He then greeted Graham Wagg by clipping the left-armer to fine-leg.
Alex Hughes also survived a difficult chance at mid-on as he miscued a lofted drive against Salter, but next over he perished as he edged a pull against Wagg and was caught by Chris Cooke. 108/5 then became 112/6 as Wagg trapped Gary Wilson leg before. Daryn Smit also departed in that fashion in Andrew Salter’s next over as Derbyshire nosedived to 117/7.
Reece responded by driving and pulling de Lange for a pair of fours to complete an 89-ball fifty, but he then departed to Salter as he spooned a ball to Tom Cullen, the substitute fielder, at short extra-cover. Jeevan Mendis then swept Salter for a trio of orthodox fours, followed by a reverse-sweep for four as he used the long handle with wristy effect, and prompted the return of Timm van der Gugten.
But the Dutchman had Tom Milnes caught at second slip by Nick Selman with his fifth delivery, before next over having Mendis caught at deep mid-wicket by Rudolph as they were dismissed for 160.
This left Glamorgan with six overs remaining tonight, plus the mandatory 96 tomorrow, and a target of 212. Once again van der Gugten was pressed into service as a night-watchman with Rudolph, and after five maidens, Rudolph departed l.b.w. to the final ball of the day from Mendis to leave the prospect of an interesting final day’s play.
7.10pm update
Play eventually got underway at 6pm under leaden skies and Marchant de Lange made an immediate impact as with the fourth ball he bowled Tom Taylor, before three balls later removing the other night-watchman Tony Palladino who edged a ball to Owen Morgan in the gully with the visitors on 7/2.
The regular pairing of Billy Godleman and Luis Reece duly joined forces with the former straight driving van der Gugten for three before drilling de Lange twice through extra-cover besides pulling him to the ropes at deep backward square-leg. Reece then cover drove van der Gugten before Godleman did the same in the Dutchman’s next over.
But Godleman’s enterprising innings was abruptly ended by de Lange with the total on 39 as the visiting captain spliced a short ball into the hands of Andrew Salter in the gully. Wayne Madsen came in and clipped de Lange to square-leg before twice reverse-sweeping Andrew Salter when the spinner came on shortly before the interval. But the spinner dismissed Madsen with the last ball of the over as he edged to Donald at short-leg.
3 pm Update
From a meteorological perspective this is supposed to be high summer, with the so-called “Flaming June” seeing temperatures soar and prolonged spells of sunshine. This may well have happened last week, but for the past few days, the weather patterns have seen areas of low pressure and bands of rain criss-cross the country.
Yesterday, the cricketers of Glamorgan and Derbyshire were fortunate to escape the bad weather which decimated the other games in this round of day-night games, but they were not so fortunate this morning as rain fell from 9am and with it continuing at 1pm, the umpires Alex Wharf and Paul Pollard had the straight-forward task of delaying the start of today’s proceedings with the visitors on 2/0 in their second innings and a lead of 53 over the Welsh county.
The precipitation was still falling at 3pm, with the umpires deciding that there would be no play during the first session. The rain eased around 5pm and after a further inspection the umpires agreed that play would commence at 6pm with 51 overs remaining in the day's allocation.