Glamorgan new boy Shubman Gill out for 92 on rain-hit day in Cardiff

India batter Shubman Gill fell eight runs short of a century on his Glamorgan debut a on a rain-hit third day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Worcestershire.

Only 50 overs were possible at Sophia Gardens, where Glamorgan still need 64 to avoid the follow on target of 305 after ending the day 241 for eight.

Glamorgan were happy chasing the batting bonus points that would take them past the follow-on target and also potentially ahead of Middlesex into second place in the table, with those two teams meeting next week at Lord’s.

Worcestershire need a win to boost their chances of joining the promotion race, but that will take quite a turnaround given more rain is forecast in Cardiff on the final day.

There was a little under two hours of play possible before lunch, then a lengthy break before the players returned after tea for a truncated evening session.

Gill had shown his class the previous evening and picked up where he had left off by hitting his first ball through mid-on.

Nightwatch Timm van der Gugten had a bit of fun before departing on 18.

Off-cutter

Sam Northeast would have been confident coming to the wicket on the back of breaking the Glamorgan county batting records in both red and white-ball cricket, but an off-cutter from Dillon Pennington saw him depart for 10.

Worcestershire’s hopes were raised when Pennington’s next ball found the edge of Kiran Carlson’s bat and Ed Pollock took the catch at slip ..

Billy Root has a good record against Worcestershire and he was able to avoid the hat-trick and then keep Worcestershire at bay until the rain came.

Resuming after tea, Glamorgan slipped deeper into trouble despite gaining their first batting bonus point of the game. Root was lbw aiming through midwicket to give Ben Gibbon his third victim.

Then came the big wicket of Gill for 92, also lbw aiming through midwicket – this time Ed Barnard was the bowler. Gill will count himself especially unlucky as two balls after his departure all the players were walking off for bad light.

The players did return for a final 10 overs and James Harris was bowled by Pennington on what proved to be the last ball of the day.