Glamorgan close in on win after Derbyshire batting collapse

Promotion hopefuls Glamorgan are pressing for victory after Derbyshire collapsed dramatically on the third day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match at Derby.

After an opening stand of 165 between Luis Reece and Harry Came, the hosts then lost seven wickets for 44 runs to be bowled out for 318.

Following on, the pair again played well to close on 78 without loss but with Derbyshire still 125 runs behind Glamorgan’s first-innings total of 521 for eight declared.

Reece scored 131, his first championship hundred of the season, and Came 65 but the home side fell apart against the second new ball as Glamorgan secured maximum bonus points.

Leus du Plooy made 41 to reach 1,000 championship runs for the season but his dismissal started the slide, with Timm van der Gugten finishing with three for 94.

Until that second new ball, Derbyshire had looked comfortable as they accumulated steadily against accurate but mainly non-threatening bowling.

Came and Reece played patiently on a rain interrupted morning, with the former reaching his 50 from 162 balls as the pair recorded Derbyshire’s highest opening stand against Glamorgan at Derby.

Breakthrough

The bowlers were getting little out of a slow pitch and, after a brief rain break, it was a lapse in concentration that brought about the breakthrough.

Came was tempted into driving at a wide ball from Van der Gugten and edged into the gloves of Chris Cooke.

It had taken 64 overs but Glamorgan only had to wait another four balls as Brooke Guest, who scored centuries in both innings of the corresponding match last season, was trapped on the crease and lbw for a duck.

Another shower left Reece on 99 at lunch but he completed his hundred immediately after the resumption with an edge past the slips off Van der Gugten for his 12th four.

When Du Plooy drove Van der Gugten to the cover boundary, he reached 1,000 championship runs in a season for Derbyshire for the first time and although he was dropped at slip off Mitchell Swepson on 33, the wheels came flying off shortly afterwards.

Reece was caught off the glove sweeping Swepson and when the new ball was taken, Jamie McIlroy got some late movement to have Du Plooy caught behind.

Haider Ali went in the next over cutting at Van der Gugten and Anuj Dal failed to make the most of a dropped catch in the slips before he had scored when he edged McIlroy behind.

At tea, Derbyshire needed another 63 to avoid following-on but the last four wickets went for only two runs in 19 balls.

Andy Gorvin was getting the ball to swing in the overcast conditions but Alex Thomson edged a big drive before Tom Wood missed a sweep at Swepson.

Gorvin tempted Zak Chappell into a drive which secured full bowling points and when George Scrimshaw was run out, Glamorgan had no hesitation in putting Derbyshire back in.

The good news for the hosts was that the sun was now out and batting became easier as Came and Reece combined again to frustrate Glamorgan.

David Lloyd rotated his bowlers but Derbyshire’s openers played responsibly to bat 33 overs to the close and give their side a chance of saving the match, with Reece unbeaten on 53.