Bragg makes 74 but Glamorgan slip to 185/9 at the Ageas Bowl

Barry Manilow is in concert later in the month at the Ageas Bowl, but during the first two sessions of this game it was the sound of the Hampshire supporters celebrating the regular fall of Glamorgan wickets that echoed around the ground, as the visitors were dismissed for 224 in the space of two sessions after being put in to bat by Jimmy Adams. Yesterday, the visiting attack also tasted success as Hampshire themselves lost eight wickets for just 211 runs with Graham Wagg - the leading bowler in Division Two this summer - delivering a marathon spell at the Pavilion End, punctuated by a series of interruptions to the weather as a band of heavy showers made their way along the South Coast.


Rain also interrupted the warm-ups before play this morning with the start of the contest being delayed by fifty five minutes with Hampshire resuming the third day 106 runs ahead with two wickets remaining and Glamorgan's bowlers straining at the leash to edge their innings. Wagg duly obliged with his second delivery - and the eighth of the day - as Michael Bates edged into Stewart Walters' hands at second slip.
Kyle Abbott slashed Jim Allenby square of the wicket for four before James Tomlinson hoisted him over the ropes at long-on for six, but the all-rounder gained revenge for his rough treatment as he ended the innings on 345 with Abbott edging another expansive blow into Mark Wallace's gloves.


This meant that Glamorgan had forty minutes batting before lunch with Jacques Rudolph crisply cover driving the first ball from Tomlinson before clipping him over the head of the slip cordon and then giving a sharp chance to square-leg where a diving Will Smith could not quite grasp the ball. At the other end, Gareth Rees played and missed a couple of times against Abbott but in his third over the Springbok induced an edge from Rudolph's bat and James Vince, at third slip, held onto the ball at the third attempt.


9/1 then became 9/3 as in the space of four balls Tomlinson bowled Rees, before having Murray Goodwin was caught in the gully by a diving Michael Carberry.

Resuming after lunch with his side on 14/3, Stewart Walters greeted Kyle Abbott by cover driving his third delivery of the afternoon before Will Bragg clipped James Tomlinson to long-leg. Walters added another four in the next over as he drilled Abbott behind square on the leg-side before Bragg majestically despatched Tomlinson off the back foot through extra cover.


Bragg then clipped Tomlinson to square-leg before Walters despatched Abbott through extra cover for another coruscating four. Bragg greeted the arrival of Matt Coles into the attack by drilling him through extra cover before bringing up the fifty stand by clipping him to the boundary boards at mid-wicket. But the flurry of runs ended as Sean Ervine replaced Abbott at the Northern End and with his sixth delivery he had Walters caught at second slip by Liam Dawson.


60/4 saw Jim Allenby join Bragg who off-drove Ervine before Allenby opened his account by scything Coles over the head of cover for four. Bragg twice punched Coles off the back foot through extra cover before pulling Ervine for another boundary. Allenby then off-drove Coles before swatting the all-rounder to long-on as Glamorgan reached the 100-mark in the 31^st over.


Bragg then despatched Ervine to long-on for four as he completed his fifty from 75 balls before greeting the introduction of Liam Dawson's left-arm-spin by guiding him through extra cover for four. Allenby then steered a pair of short balls from James Vince through backward point as the arrears were written off. Bragg also deftly steered a short ball from Vince to the vacant third man ropes before savagely pulling yet another short ball through mid-wicket.


Allenby then survived a loud appeal for a catch at the wicket as he played forward to Dawson before Abbott returned shortly before tea and was twice driven through extra cover by the Glamorgan all-rounder.

Glamorgan resumed after tea on 154/4, but the complexion of the game dramatically changed in the next quarter of an hour after Allenby had clipped Kyle Abbott to the square-leg ropes. Four balls later, the South African had an l.b.w. appeal upheld as the all-rounder departed for 47 having added 98 in 25 overs with Will Bragg, who then next over was caught behind as he drove at Liam Dawson and departed for a well composed 74, and the highest score of the match.


160/6 then became 162/7 as Abbott struck again as James Vince at third slip took a superb diving catch to his left to send Mark Wallace back to the pavilion. Ruaidhri Smith and Graham Wagg then joined forces but after four more overs, it started to rain with the umpires taking the players off the field. A seventy minute break then followed before play resumed at 6.10pm with eleven overs still remaining in the day's allocation.


Wagg crisply on-drove James Tomlinson but next over he miscued a blow against Dawson and skied a catch to Michael Carberry at mid-off with his side on 170/8 and a lead of just 49. Smith then clipped Tomlinson to backward square-leg for four, but Matt Coles then returned to the attack at the Pavilion and in the penultimate over of the day, Smith edged Coles into Bates' gloves with Glamorgan on 181/9