Essex were brought down to earth after their overnight promotion celebrations as Glamorgan kept them in the field for much of another hot day at Chelmsford, with Mark Wallace reaching 75 not out and Glamorgan 293/9 at stumps on day 3 - a lead of 260.
It was a particularly memorable day for two Glamorgan players: South African seamer Craig Meschede took the first five-wicket haul of his career, and Will Bragg became the Welsh county’s first batsman to 1,000 Championship runs this summer.
“At the start of every year we set targets and it’s actually harder than people realise when they put out that landmark figure," said batsman Will Bragg. "The season is quite long and it is hard to be consistent, so it is pleasing that I’ve found a lot more consistency batting at three.
“I’ve felt that in certain situations I could have scored more runs, but I’m happy with the way I’ve gone about my business. I feel I haven’t given my wicket away which is pleasing. From a team point of view we are disappointed with what we set out at the start of the season, but there are positive signs.”
Glamorgan at 127 for one proceeded to lose six wickets for 36 runs, and Bragg said: “Cricket is like that, especially a four-day game where it can ebb and flow. Sometimes it looked quite flat out there, but a wicket always brings one or two more and this was one of those days. But Wally showed great resilience at the back-end and put us into a competitive position going into the last day.
"If we get another 20-25 runs in the morning we can come hard at them with the new-ball. It seems to be one of those wickets where you can get one, two or three quite quickly with the new-ball. I think 250-plus will be a good chase-down.”