Surrey’s bowlers found Craig Meschede’s batting as maddening as the pronunciation of his surname as the all-rounder’s maiden first-class century from No9 squeaked Glamorgan past the follow-on mark late on day three in Cardiff.
Meschede – “Mesh-der”, phonetically – had already picked up the prized wicket of Kevin Pietersen on day one but arrived at the crease before tea with 121 runs required to prevent his side batting again. What followed was a stunning unbeaten 101 from 130 balls as he and Dean Cosker added 119 for the ninth wicket.
Cosker’s departure, with two runs still required and Meschede on 95, saw the hosts nine down and the pressure on No11 Andy Carter. A tucked single allowed his senior partner to take control, heaving a 16th four to pass the 414 required before a top-edged pull over midwicket saw him taste three figures.
“I was a top-order batsman growing up and this is as low as I have batted. It would be great to go up the order,” said the 23-year-old South African, who is on a season-long loan from Somerset. “I would have been devastated if the shot had gone to hand. My heart was racing and it was a massive relief.”
“Craig is too good to be batting at nine,” added the Surrey all-rounder Zafar Ansari, who himself had earlier lit up the day with a 70-metre direct hit run out to remove Chris Cooke for 20. “He looked relaxed at the crease and timed the ball beautifully.”
Surrey had, until Meschede’s intervention, been chipping away throughout the day, with Ansari’s stunner from the boundary one of three wickets before lunch. Gareth Batty delivered in the afternoon, bowling Graham Wagg for 31 and trapping David Lloyd lbw sweeping on four, before Tom Curran had Mark Wallace caught behind for a pugnacious 51.
Step forward Meschede, who steered his side to 319 for eight at tea, signing off the session with his fourth four, driven off Batty, before a correct and composed assault after the interval, to which Surrey’s bowlers had no answer. The pick? A cut over point to reach his 50.
Cosker provided the perfect support until he fell lbw to Jason Roy’s first ball of the match for 19 from 110 balls, 2.5 overs from the close. Carter did his job before holing out to Ansari with Glamorgan 419 all out at stumps. “I owe Dean a beer,” added Meschede after stumps. “He was a life-saver out there and saved the game in my opinion.”
Surrey will resume with 144 runs in the bank with an early thrash – perhaps through Pietersen – the order of the day.
