Lancashire’s dominance at the top of Division Two continues as they beat Glamorgan by an innings and 157 runs. There was to be no repeat of the Glamorgan lower order heroics of the first innings as they lost their last five wickets for 12 runs in 53 balls.
The north Wales coast did not look quite so pretty on the morning of the final day as heavy drizzle prevented any play in the morning session. When it did get under way, the overnight not out batsmen, Chris Cooke and Andrew Salter, played out the first 45 minutes comfortably, the former scoring his fourth half-century of the season with a clipped boundary through midwicket.
It was the first bowling change that brought the breakthrough when James Faulkner got a bit of away swing to the right-handed Cooke who thick-edged to a juggling Paul Horton at first slip. The previous day, the otherwise docile Colwyn Bay pitch had started to show signs of a bit of bite and turn and Lancashire captain Stephen Croft quickly decided to abort the use of the seamers and turned to spin from both ends with men round the bat.
Off-spinner Aaron Lilley got a wicket with his second delivery; that of Craig Meschede, who’s scored over 500 championship runs this season, went back into his crease and was struck on the back pad. With very little bounce in the pitch umpire Bodenham was quick to put his finger in the air. Then with his fourth delivery of the day he bowled Graham Wagg, who had been so destructive against him in the first innings.
Three overs later Simon Kerrigan ended Salter’s watchful innings of 34 leaving Dean Cosker and Michael Hogan with the almost impossible task of surviving another 54 overs.
Hogan came out swinging, as he does, and started by blasting a six over long off before miscuing to Kyle Jarvis at backward square leg to bring the match to its expected conclusion. Kerrigan finished with four for 28 from 21.4 overs.
This match was all but decided on the second day by the stunning-501 run partnership between Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince and even the most partisan of Glamorgan fans had to admit that they had witnessed something special.
The win puts Lancashire 32 points clear at the top of Division Two and all but promoted. For Glamorgan, this loss sees their hopes of promotion fading Having previously gone unbeaten,they suffered a set-back last week when they lost against Essex and now with this loss there’s clear water between them and second-placed Surrey. They do have a game in hand over the top two but it’s going to require something akin to snookers to catch them up.
