Glamorgan escape with a draw after following on against Durham

Glamorgan secured a draw despite being forced to follow on with a Kiran Carlson hundred the highlight for the home side in their County Championship clash against Durham in Cardiff.

A century stand between Carlson and Timm van der Gugten brought Glamorgan close to the follow-on target but wickets shared amongst the Durham seamers were enough to bowl Glamorgan out for 305 and allow the visitors to ask them to bat again.

In the Glamorgan second innings the Durham bowlers were well on top again as the home side reached 106 for six before a heavy rain shower brought play to close with 22 overs left to bowled.

Glamorgan will finish with nine points and Durham with 13 points, but the real winner was the weather which took almost two days play out of this match.

Glamorgan had resumed still trailing Durham by 318 runs and 169 runs away from avoiding the follow on. When Chris Cooke edged a ball through to wicket-keeper Ollie Robinson from a ball from Ben Raine only two more runs had been added to the overnight score and Glamorgan were in danger of conceding a massive first-innings lead and having to bat again.

Carlson and Van der Gugten batted brilliantly to take their team within touching distance of avoiding the follow on with a partnership of 110, a record ninth-wicket stand in matches between these two teams.

Carlson backed up his hundred in Glamorgan’s opening match against Gloucestershire with another well put together century in this fixture.

Ticking over

He looked troubled against the shorter ball, especially from Brydon Carse whose extra pace asked questions throughout the Glamorgan innings, but as ever with Carlson when he is at the crease he keeps the scoreboard ticking over. It seemed as if his journey from the sixties into the eighties happened in a flash.

He slowed down a little on his way to his hundred, but it was another innings that held things together for his team.

Against Gloucestershire he came into bat with his team in trouble at 35 for three, here his team were three down for just 60 runs. Both times a century dug his team out of a hole of their own making.

Carlson’s first innings of the day was ended when Liam Trevaskis dismissed him caught and bowled for 119.

Durham’s efforts to push for victory were hampered by Australian spinner Matt Kuhnemann’s tight back preventing him from taking the field on the final day, but they still managed to dismiss Glamorgan and enforce the follow on. Van der Gugten was the last man to fall for a very well made 54.

Glamorgan started their second innings still 166 behind Durham with 45 overs left to survive. Once again, the Durham seamers asked questions that the Glamorgan top order found hard to answer.

Raine trapped Eddie Byrom lbw before Paul Coughlin claimed the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Sam Northeast to leave the home side 40 for three, still 126 runs away from making Durham bat again.

Carlson could not repeat his first-innings heroics, he was dismissed for seven in Glamorgan’s second dig when he was caught at leg slip by Graham Clark.

David Lloyd made 31 before he was caught hooking on the boundary to give Coughlan his fourth wicket and leave Glamorgan 66 for five with more than 30 overs left to be bowled. That become 96 for six when Cooke edged through to the keeper off the bowling of Raine.

Shortly after the fall of Cooke’s wicket a very heavy rain shower brought play to a close with Durham left to rue a missed chance for a win with too much time lost for them to head north with maximum points.