Glamorgan finished off 2019 at Sophia Gardens with a resounding 291-run victory over Leicestershire, and kept themselves in the promotion race ahead of the final week of action.
Chris Cooke top-scored in the first innings with 96 and provided a momentous boost in the second with some powerful hitting before he captained the side to his first victory as skipper in the Specsavers County Championship.
“We knew we were going to have to work hard and back up the efforts we put in last night with the ball," said Cooke. "I felt the guys did that and bowled really well. It took a bit of spin there, so it brought our spin twins into the game, so pretty pleased with how the day went. To be fair the boys made it pretty easy to ring the changes, and they bowled pretty to drawer today, so I am chuffed with the win.
“(Two spinners) It’s something I haven’t come across in my short tenure as captain, but it was great to have the options, and great to have the left-armer creating a bit of rough. We got the combinations right and the boys did brilliantly, so now it’s up to Durham.
“It’s great to go up to Durham with a sniff and know we can control what we can control, and make sure we get as many points as we can and we shall see what happens down in Bristol. We just have to do what we have been doing, we got maximum batting points this game so there should be a bit of confidence that we can do the same again.
“Kraigg has been a great addition, and it is great to have someone we can all bat around as us in the middle order like to play our shots. It’s great to have Kraigg just doing his thing and batting time and batting long, which fits our game plan pretty well.
“As management you have to keep an eye on what’s going on, and checking a few weather apps but, like I said you just have to control what you can control. It will be silly if we are worrying about things in Bristol, we have to take care of what we can do in Durham.”
Head coach Matt Maynard finishes off 2019 at Sophia Gardens with his first County Championship victory here, and he was delighted with his side's efforts throughout the duration of the game.
“It was good four days wasn’t it really, we played well," said Maynard. "I'm delighted for Salts who came in there and bowled beautifully to follow on from his performance for the 2nd XI last week. All in all really pleased with performance.
“To get full batting points, when I thought Leicester bowled really well, and they came out tough on that second day and made it hard work for us but, to get the full batting points, to bowl them out and continue as we have done for the rest of the game is very pleasing.
“I think everybody thought that it would do a little bit more on day four but, fair play to Robin and his crew for producing such a good cricket wicket. There was a bit was a bit of turn, but not quite as much from the straight as we anticipated. Maybe that is something we look into in the future but, I thought it was a really good game of cricket.
“Obviously you would say that Gloucestershire are favourites from where they are, a win ahead, we are going up there (Durham) with a sniff, and we are going to have to perform as well as we did in this match to give ourselves a chance.
“Our result now means they can get promotion, but they still want to finish as high as they can in the league and they will come hard at us. They have got a great bunch of bowlers. Some of the recent September results up there have been interesting, maybe a potential low 1st innings score, then a high score 2nd and 3rd innings and then a low 4th innings score.
“It will be interesting to see what to do when we get up there. Thankfully the Club is allowing us to go up a day early. We will travel up on Saturday, that will allow us good recovery progress from a 7 hour bus journey, and then practice well on Sunday before the game on starts on Monday, so we are giving ourselves the best possible chance.”