An unbeaten 101 by eighteen year-old Kiran Carlson has seen Glamorgan recover from the loss of early wickets to reach 256/7 when bad light brought an early finish to an eventful opening day of their penultimate Specsavers County Championship match of the summer against Essex at Chelmsford.
Close of Play Report
Kiran Carlson’s watchful efforts had seen Glamorgan recover from 83/6 to reach 185/7 at tea with the teenager unbeaten on 64 having also found a stubborn ally in Owen Morgan. Carlson began with an on-drive for three against Jamie Porter before edging Graham Napier to gully where Dan Lawrence could not securely grasp the ball. Owen Morgan began with a sweetly-timed on-drive for four against Porter before Carlson languidly steered the bowler twice through point for a pair of well-controlled boundaries.
Together with Morgan, the pair also added some quick singles as the cloud cover built up and necessitated the floodlights coming on with 20 overs remaining. But the gloom did not handicap M organ who pulled Bopara for four before Carlson did the same next over to bring up the century stand in 35 overs. Carlson celebrated by pulling ten Doeschate for four to long-leg, before Morgan pulled Bopara for another four.
Carlson then moved into the nineties with a pair of two’s against Bopara, followed by a cover drive against the former England all-rounder, before reaching three figures as the former pupil of Whitchurch High School clipped Ravi Bopara to short mid-wicket. At 18 years and 119 days old, he is the youngest centurion in first-class cricket beating Mike Llewellyn’s century against Cambridge University at Swansea in 1972 when 18 years and 213 days.
Later in the over Morgan reached his fifty after clipping Westley over mid-wicket before Essex took the new ball on 254/7. After a couple of overs with the new ball, the light had become sufficiently gloomy for the umpires to take the players off with six remaining in the day’s quota.
Afternoon Update
Having seen his side reach 57/3 at lunch, Craig Meschede began the afternoon session by squirting Graham Napier through the gully for four followed by a rasping pull to the ropes at mid-wicket, whilst Kiran Carlson firmly cut Jamie Porter for four. Meschede also on-drove Porter for three but next over, he clipped Napier in the air to fine-leg where Porter completed the catch.
83/6 saw Essex accrue their second bowling point as Mark Wallace joined Carlson, with the new batsman announcing his arrival with a pair of rasping cover drives, followed by a deft glide to third man plus another cover drive when David Masters returned at the Hayes Close End. Carlson also clipped the veteran to square-leg before off-driving his next delivery.
Ravi Bopara then entered the attack and in his third over bowled Wallace with a delivery which appeared to scuttle through as the batsman attempted a pull stroke. With Owen Morgan as his new partner, Carlson off-drove Ryan ten Doeschate’s first ball for four, before dispatching the next through the gully for four. Morgan then edged Bopara to second slip where Nick Browne spilled the chance.
Carlson then cover drove ten Doeschate for four to complete a maiden Championship fifty from 77 balls, before celebrating by on-driving Bopara to the boundary boards next over. Morgan also clipped ten Doeschate to fine-leg for four before dispatching the next delivery through extra cover for another well-timed boundary.
Carlson then nearly edged Bopara to slip whilst Morgan greeted the return of Napier by firstly driving him through mid-off four before pulling the next ball to fine-leg. Carlson also cut Bopara to the point boundary to bring up the 50-stand. Shortly before tea, the off-spin of Tom Westley was introduced at the Hayes Close End with Carlson almost edging the twirler to slip.
Lunchtime Report
The start of play was delayed until 12noon because of severe traffic congestion, with an accident on the main road adjacent to the team’s hotel in Brentwood, causing major traffic problems and severe delays on the A12 and adjoining roads heading into Chelmsford, most notably the team’s kit van which was caught up in the travel choas for around three hours.
Eight overs were lost to the day’s quota, with Glamorgan winning the toss and batting first with Jacques Rudolph returning in place Graham Wagg from the Gloucestershire match last week. The Club captain duly opened with Nick Selman against an Essex side seeking a further six bonus points to clinch promotion into Division One of the revamped Championship competition for 2017.
Jamie Porter and David Masters shared the new ball and went past the outside edge in their opening salvo’s, before Rudolph unfurled a pair of high-class cover drives against Porter. Selman also on-drove Masters twice for four before Rudolph steered Graham Napier’s first delivery to wide third man for another boundary. But four balls later, the veteran all-rounder found the edge of Rudolph’s bat with Tom Westley and second slip completing the head high catch.
This was the first of five wickets to tumble in 21 balls as 30/1 immediately became 30/2 as Napier trapped Will Bragg l,b,w, with his next delivery, before next over Porter got a ball to move back into Selman and re-arrange his stumps as Glamorgan slipped to 30/3 with the home side securing their first bonus point after fifty minutes play.
Aneurin Donald responded by cover-driving his first delivery for four, but David Lloyd edged a rising delivery from Porter to Varun Chopra at first slip , but 34/4 became 34/5 as Napier struck again as he bowled Donald with a ball which hit off stump. Craig Meschede then greeted the return of Masters by lofting him to long-on for four before Kiran Carlson opened his account with a flowing cover drive for four against the veteran before clipping successive balls from Napier to mid-on and mid-wicket for four.