Glamorgan welcome Nottinghamshire to Sophia Gardens for their next match in the LV=Insurance County Championship as the leaders of Division Two meet the Welsh county who are in third place in the table for what could be a pivotal match in the four-day competition and scheduled to start at 11am on Monday, July 11th. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The two teams met earlier this season during mid-April at Trent Bridge with Glamorgan winning by seven wickets. Since then, the East Midlands team have beaten both Durham and Leicestershire by an innings, as well as Derbyshire by ten wickets and Worcestershire by five wickets to give themselves a 23-point lead over Glamorgan at the top of the table.
Glamorgan have won three of their last four Championship matches, beating Leicestershire in early May at Sophia Gardens, followed by a defeat the following week against Durham. But the Welsh county have bounced back, defeating Sussex by 5 wickets at Sophia Gardens and then Worcester last week by three wickets in a thrilling run chase at New Road.
Nottinghamshire last visited Sophia Gardens during 2017 for a game which ended all square after Chris Cooke and Colin Ingram batted all day in an unbroken and match-saving stand of 226 in 83.1 overs after Glamorgan had followed-on having been dismissed for just 187 in reply to the visitors first innings total of 448 in which both Jake Libby and Rikki Wessels scored hundreds.
The game in 2017 had been Nottinghamshire’s first to Cardiff since September 2005 when they won by eight wickets, thanks to a century from Darren Bicknell and miserly bowling performances by Greg Smith and Mark Ealham, although Alex Wharf struck a defiant century for Glamorgan.
Glamorgan’s most recent success at their headquarters against the East Midlands side came in September 1995 when the Welsh county registered a 189-run victory. In that match, centuries in each innings by Hugh Morris, plus a return of 5/47 by Robert Croft in Nottinghamshire’s second innings saw Glamorgan to victory.