It took just 30 minutes and 50 balls for Durham to wrap up an innings victory over Glamorgan on the third morning of their Specsavers County Championship match at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, with Chris Rushworth taking the last three wickets to finish with figures of 5/28 as the Welsh county were dismissed for 111 to give the visitors victory by an innings and 30 runs.
Morning Report
Despite career-best figures of 5/87 by Ruaidhri Smith, Durham maintained the upper hand on the second day of this rain-affected contest at an overcast Sophia Gardens. Through the probing efforts of the home attack, Durham were just four runs ahead when their sixth wicket fell, but through the efforts of Axar Patel, their Indian recruit, the visitors nearly secured a third batting point as they amassed a decent first innings lead of 141. Patel nearly emulated the achievements of his fellow countrymen in the Test Match at Trent Bridge but having got to within one blow of a hundred on his Championship debut, he watched Michael Hogan terminate the innings by clean bowling numbers ten and eleven.
It was then the turn of the visiting seamers to make early inroads into Glamorgan’s top-order, and as the light deteriorated Patel, in tandem with leg-spinner Cameron Steel removed three further batsmen before rain brought an early finish with Glamorgan slumping to 79/7 with 62 runs still needed to avoided an innings defeat a
There was still a heavy cloud cover when play resumed at 11am with Craig Meschede and Smith looking to stall Durham’s progress towards a victory inside three days. Chris Rushworth beat the outside edge of Meschede’s bat three times in the opening over, before Smith cover drove Patel for four. He then straight-drove Rushworth for a second boundary, but in the seamers next over, and with the total on 95, Meschede departed l.b.w.
Smith square-cut Rushworth for four but the seamer then re-arranged Lukas Carey’s stumps. Michael Hogan responded by cover-driving Rushworth – a stroke which Smith then repeated against Patel – but in his next over, the seamer ended the contest as he clean bowled Hogan This was the second time that Glamorgan had lost by an innings against Durham at the Cardiff headquarters with the previous occasion being 1992 when the north-eastern county won by an innings and 104 runs.