Croft Upbeat After Improved Glamorgan Display

25 May 2016 | Cricket
Robert Croft reflected on a much-improved Glamorgan performance as the Welsh county drew with Essex in the Specsavers County Championship.

Although Glamorgan remained five wickets away from victory on the final day, as Essex finished on 160/5, Head Coach Croft believes the team's display over the four days was the best of the season so far.

He said: "I thought our performance in this four days was a far better performance than we have shown so far this season and it needed to be.

"I think we showed to ourselves and hopefully to the people that watched the game, the calibre of player we do have in our squad."

Glamorgan batted themselves back into the game as Will Bragg's career-best 161* took them to 386/8 declared in the second innings, before taking five Essex wickets on Day Four, but falling short of victory.

Croft added: "It was a tough, hard-fought game. It is the cricket you probably see in Division One. We decided to bat the opposition out of the game this morning and give them no chance of winning and backed ourselves to get the wickets.

"The pitch was very flat at the end, it needed some graft. Unfortunately we didn’t quite get there, but we have come out of this game with far more confidence and far more belief.

"I thought from where we have been and the fact that we haven’t won many matches it was important that we came out of this game psychologically on top, and I think we did."

Both Glamorgan and Essex earned 10 points and the Welsh county will now travel to The Kia Oval to face Surrey in the NatWest T20 Blast tomorrow (Thursday).