Glamorgan travel to Manchester to meet Lancashire in their next game in the LV=Insurance County Championship with the contest at the Emirates Old Trafford scheduled to get under way at 11am on Thursday, 6 May (writes Andrew Hignell)
Glamorgan’s resounding victory over Kent inside two days at Cardiff, in what was their shortest-ever four-day Championship encounter, has lifted the Welsh county into fourth place in the group table, level with Northants after the East Midlands side lost by one run in their game with Yorkshire. Lancashire are in top spot after defeating Sussex by five wickets at Hove – their third success of the summer having already secured victories over Kent and Northamptonshire earlier in April..
It took Glamorgan just 26.5 overs to dismiss Kent last Friday afternoon, but the record for the shortest-ever innings by any county against Glamorgan in first-class cricket still stands at 14 overs – achieved at Liverpool in the Club’s Championship-winning season of 1997 when they humbled Lancashire for 51 on the final day of a rain-affected contest as Glamorgan won by 221 runs with Waqar Younis taking 7/25 in an explosive spell of pace bowling during which he was twice poised to claim a hat-trick.
This contest in 1997 remains the Welsh county’s most recent victory on Lancashire soil in a Championship match with their last success at Old Trafford coming four years earlier when 95 from Adrian Dale and 55 by Matthew Maynard steered the side to a seven-wicket victory. This win in 1993 is one of seven victories recorded by Glamorgan in 37 Championship matches at the Manchester ground with their other successes coming in 1946, 1951, 1957, 1965, 1968 and 1989.
Their most recent visit to Old Trafford came in August 2015 as the Welsh county’s players experienced one of the perverse features of Manchester’s microclimate in that more rain often falls during August than in February. Over five hours play was lost in this contest with Glamorgan being forced to follow-on during the final day before Jacques Rudolph and Chris Cooke skilfully guided their team to the safety of a draw.
Glamorgan’s previous visit to Manchester in 2013 had also ended all square. Both Murray Goodwin and Gareth Rees posted forthright hundreds, with Murray’s 194 remaining the highest individual innings for Glamorgan on Lancashire soil. As far as the bowling records are concerned in the contests against the Red Roses, Waqar Younis’ seven-wicket return at Liverpool in 1997 is the best in an innings for Glamorgan in Lancashire, whilst Steve Watkin’s figures of 13/159 in the nine-run victory at Old Trafford in 1989 remain the best match figures for the Welsh county in Lancashire.