Glamorgan were 42/4 when rain brought an early finish at tea on the second day of their Specsavers County Championship match at The SSE SWALEC, after Worcestershire had declared on 456/6 with Brett D’Oliveira making an unbeaten 202.
Afternoon update
Having guided his side to 411/6 at lunch, Brett D’Oliveira began the afternoon session by savagely cutting Graham Wagg for four, before Mitchell Santner did the same to Michael Hogan followed by a rasping straight drive back over Wagg’s head. The Kiwi then off-drove Hogan for four before D’Oliveira cut a pair of deliveries from Wagg through point for four before reaching his maiden double-century from 359 balls by clipping Hogan to the mid-wicket ropes.
The visitors then declared with Glamorgan’s new opening pairing of Nick Selman and Mark Wallace starting the Welsh county’s reply. Selman began by clipping his first delivery in first-class cricket to the ropes at square-leg. Wallace also began with a boundary as he on-drove Ed Barnard, but in Leach’s second over, he struck in successive balls as firstly Selman departed l.b.w. before Will Bragg edged the next delivery into the hands of first slip before Jacques Rudolph survived the hat-trick ball with five slips and a pair of leg-slips..
But next over, 8/2 became 8/3 as Wallace was yorked by a full length delivery from Barnard. Chris Cooke began with successive off-drives against the seamer before steering Barnard through point for four. With the cloud cover having increased, the umpires briefly took the players off the field for bad light with Glamorgan on 22/3. Play resumed fifteen minutes later with Chris Cooke cover-driving Leach before scything him over the slip cordon.
Jacques Rudolph watchfully played himself in and had a boundary to his credit, when with the score on 38, Glamorgan lost their fourth wicket and their captain as Cooke off-drove Shantry for three, but in turning at the bowler’s end, he appeared to lose his footing and despite a full-length dive was short of his ground at the wicket-keeper’s end as Mitchell Santner’s throw came into Ben Cox’s gloves before the bails were removed.
Aneurin Donald then joined Cooke but with a large bank of cloud looming over the ground, the umpires took the players off for bad light and a few minutes later a monsoonal deluge engulfed the Stadium. The rain continued to fall and at 5.20pm the umpires called off play for the day.
Morning Update
Yesterday, Worcestershire’s batsmen amassed 343/2 after opting to bat first on a green-tinged wicket, with century-makers Brett D’Oliveira and Joe Clarke sharing an unbroken stand of 209 for the third wicket as the visiting side moved into an ascendant position.
Brett D’Oliveira also became the third member of the Worcestershire family to score a Championship hundred against Glamorgan, following in the footsteps of his father Damian who scored 121 at Abergavenny in 1990 and his grandfather Basil who made an unbeaten 156 at Worcester in 1977.By the close of play Brett was within five runs of beating his illustrious grandfather and further milestones loomed as play began on time under a heavy cloud cover.
After an over from David Lloyd to let the bowler’s change ends, Craig Meschede and Timm van der Gugten resumed the bowling duties, with the former finding the edge of D’Oliveira’s bat with the ball flying high over the slip cordon for four. Clarke then clipped the Dutchman to square-leg before despatching the former Somerset all-rounder through the covers and mid-off, but with the total on 371/2 rain started to fall and there was a 50 minute delay.
On the resumption, Clarke pulled Meschede twice for fours to mid-wicket before D’Oliveira edged van der Gugten wide of second slip to bring up the 250-stand. But with the total on 387 and just a dozen short of Worcestershire’s best-ever third wicket stand against Glamorgan, Mark Wallace took a fine catch, diving one-handed to his left as Clarke – on 1333 – inside edged a drive against Meschede.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore duly joined D’Oliveira after the 253-run stand had ended and he began by harpooning Meschede high over the mid-wicket ropes, whilst D’Oliveria twice cover-drove van der Gugten as Worcestershire reached the 400-mark in the 108th over. Six runs later Kohler-Cadmore holed out at long-off as Wagg returned to the attack, and then with the total on 409, Wallace took another fine diving catch as Ross Whiteley edged Hogan. Next over, Ben Cox edged Wagg to Will Bragg at first slip as Worcestershire lost a sixth wicket.