(writes Andrew Hignell)
Marnus Labuschagne needs a further 149 runs to reach the landmark of 1,000 first-class runs this summer.
In 14 innings so far this summer in first-class cricket, the Australian has amassed 851 runs at an average of 65.46 with centuries against Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Sussex, in addition to four other fifties. Indeed, his last four Championship innings have seen Marnus make 83 against Derbyshire at Swansea, 51 versus Middlesex at Radlett, followed by scores of 65 and 82 in the victory over Gloucestershire at Bristol.
A measure of Marnus’ outstanding form and consistency can be gauged by the fact that only four other batsmen have scored over 600 runs this summer, with Gary Ballance of Yorkshire 170 runs behind the the Glamorgan batsman in second place in the list of top run-scorers.
Marnus is therefore set to become the first Glamorgan batsman since 2016 to aggregate over 1,000 runs in first-class cricket and the earliest since the introduction of a two-divisional Championship, with Michael Powell reaching the milestone on 27th July 2006 during his double-century against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.
He is also set to emulate the achievements of Hugh Morris and Steve James by becoming the first batsman in the country to reach the 1,000 run milestone. Hugh achieved the landmark on 20th June 1991 as well as 1st July 1993, whilst Steve won the race to a thousand on 18th July 1997. This was his sixteenth innings of the summer with only Majid Khan having taken fewer innings for Glamorgan to reach the landmark, reaching 1,000 in his 15th innings during 1972.
Four other batsmen have reached the milestone in their 18th innings of the summer – Alan Butcher in 1990, Hugh Morris in 1996, Matthew Maynard in 1996 and Murray Goodwin in 2013.