v Glamorgan CC2 @ Swansea 31 may 2006

Scorecard

The Welsh are not the strongest team in this division and so we have the chance to get some momentum on this season in this game.  Cameron White leads his first four dayer and Dan Cullen is in with Richard Johnson missing out from the 12 named (possibly through niggly injury).  The side is;

 M J Wood, A V Suppiah, W J Durston, J C Hildreth, C L White, (capt), K A Parsons, C M Gazzard, (wkt), P D Trego, D J Cullen, A R Caddick, C M Willoughby

The choice of Cullen on what is reported to be a very wet pitch seems interesting.  But the weather is predicted dry for the whole 4 days so we are probably hoping it will dry out after today.  The second interesting decision is Glamorgan winning the toss and putting us in the field.  Where the hell did that one come from?  A pitch underwater 3 days ago and the home side don't look to take advantage of early moisture?  There are debates about whether the Welsh know something we don't or are simply afraid of batting fourth chasing anything at all.

Day 1

Anyway we are here, they are batting and everything starts on time. Including the fall of wickets within the first hour as Willoughby has Watkins cleaned up with 18 on the board.  Keith Parsons is acting as third seamer and seems to be clear on what his job is to be as Hemp falls to him caught behind 20 minutes later for 12.  Runs seem to be hard to come by and mostly coming in boundaries when they do.  Scoreboard viewers seem to think that suggests the ball is doing quite a lot and that makes the Dragons' decision to bat even more strange.  Parsons increases the puzzled looks as he clean bowls Cherry and the home side have lost 3 wickets the wrong side of 50.

Peter Trego is tried and the Glamorgan batsmen seem to take a shine to him as he loses 19 runs off his only 3 overs.  However in the process, Cosgrove also loses his stumps but that is Trigger's lot for Day 1 and we revert to the three other pacemen with Cullen being used to frustrate at one end and offer rest to the other bowlers.  Caddick gets in on the act and gets Powell, also clean bowled at 101 while Charl traps Wallace 3 runs later in front of his stumps.  No real partnerships and steady wearing down by the Somerset boys.

It stops for a while when Robert Croft arrives at the wicket.  He puts on a large partnership by today's standards (36) and looks to be trying to be a thorn in our side.  That is until Willoughby gets him to flip one to Suppiah.  KP rounds off a good set of figures by stopping the next partnetship from growing much beyond 30 when he has the new boy Franklin LBW at 174.

It is left to Alex Wharf (not for the first time I don't think) to put some respectability on the score with a solid 49 before Caddick (bowler) combines with Parsons (catcher) to send him back.  Cosker didn't last long before he was caught behind off AC and the home side are dismissed for a not so impressive 223.

Excellent work from all three front men  Caddick bowled the largest number of overs and went for the biggest run total (79) for his three but he was ably and effectively partnered by the impressive Willoughby with 3 for 39 and Parsons with 3 for 43.  Trego got some tap but he did get a wicket.

Not an impressive score?  Well it seemed so until we got on the wicket and realised what the Glamorgan boys had been having to deal with.  Matt Wood lasted a ball a minute before he went for 14.  The new boy at 3, Wes Durston lasted a little longer but only scored 4 before he was caught behind off Harrison. Hildreth once again came in before the 'experience' of Parsons and White and although he got us a run ahead of their runs to wickets before he went, still only made it 3 for 50 on his departure, caught behind again off Watkins.  We seemed to be having as much of a problem as they did and only Suppiah seemed to have weathered the storm and dealt with the conditions.  He put on 41 with his captain to move us to 91 before he became the fourth man out caught by Croft off Cosker.  With Parsons lasting only 4 balls for his one before he became number 5, it was left to Peter Trego to help his boss nurse us to the close in almost the same position as the home side at 107 for 5.

223 looks a very decent score on a pitch that accounted for 15 wickets in a day of 103 and a bit overs.  What will it be like tomorrow?  It makes no real difference, our tail needs to wag vigorously on it whatever it does!!

And this from "Bristol Rob"

"...must say the wicket did do some funny things.  At lunch I thought we were well on top but Franklin and Wharf got them out of a hole. Wharf hit Caddie out of the ground with a straight six.  Even then I thought we had done enough for us to get on top when batting.

Alas this was not to be as 2 early wickets fell but Arul was still there playing a Bowler type innings.  He was stuck on 4 for ages but was playing everything with a straight bat.  The loss of his wicket was crucial to how our innings was going to pan out.

Cosker and Croft were extracting spin towards the end of the day.We now need Cam and Trigger to dig in tomorrow and take us past Glams total as it is going to be very difficult batting last.  The weather today although cloudy with lots of sunshine was not very warm so do not expect the wicket to dry out a lot.

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day and despite what the Pitch Inspector decides only Glamorgan can suffer a points deduction with no gain to us whatever his decision..."

Day 2

I've seen interesting three day matches, one's that only just get into the third spell.  But never a game like this!  Glamorgan must be expecting a big rocket from the Inspectors of pitches and we could have come a cropper on a 'very lively' pitch.  Facing a first inning deficit was the first problem our captain had this morning.  115 behind and the only real accepted batting option left, Cameron White showed a level of patience and care we have questioned he had as he marshalled the tail towards the Welsh total of 225.  First Trego helped him push on another 36 with the Aussie scoring the larger share.  Then it was Carl Gazzard  and 26 more fowlled by a bit of a blip as Caddick didn't stick around for a change.  However, Cullen did, scoring only 7 but allowing his skipper to add another 39 of his won.  When White  went he had 86 to his name and we had passed 200.  Willoughby joined Cullen and they pushed us to within 14 runs of the Dragons.  A far better position than Wedneday night suggested.

So we are into the second half of the game one over before lunch on the second day.  Even that didn't prepare us for the next bit of this game. Enter Mr Andrew Caddick and Mr Charl Willoughby on a pitch like a minefield with a fragile opposition without a real lead.  First "Willow" took Watking with only 3 to the home side.  Then AC had Cherry (17 for 2), Powell (27 for 3), Cosgrove (39 for 4) and Hemp (48 for 5).  Ripping the heart out of the Welsh reply didn't end there.  Wallace was run out at 55 and then Keith Parsons got in on the act taking out the dangerous Franklin with only another 5 added.  This left the tail vulnerable with Caddick bowling unchanged and his South African partner keen to get the last few.  Caddy went to a fiver-fer with Wharf (no repeat of the first innings), Willoughby kept pace with his strike partner with Robert Croft at 85 and then he clean bowled Cosker to close thier innings before Tea in 32 overs for a mere 103.

If they give you the pitch, use it to the best advantage.  Caddick's 5 for 55 off 16 was brilliant and Charl's  3 for 24 off 11 wasn't far behind.  A full session left and we needed 118 to win.

After 6 overs the stomach was turning over and the forum on this site was full of pessimism and gloom.  From 18 for 0 we went to 22 for 4 with Suppiah going at the first and Wood, Hildreth and White all going at the last.  Wes Durston was standing tall and we all prayed that Keith Parsons could join him and stop the rot on the mess that was St Helens Swansea.  Franklin had 3 for 27 in 5 and we were looking down the barrell of a defeat in 48 hours snatched from the jaws of victory.

However, Durston and Parsons did what we asked, steadied the ship, settled the nerves and moved to the minor total without any more problems to put this game away before the end of the second day with 6 wickets in hand.  I can't say it seemed pretty but we made the best of a bad wicket and held our nerve for longer thanks to the steady hands of 2 players looking to make their places permanent in the batting line-up and two seamers who simply know what to do on these kinds of pitches and do it immensely well.

When the going gets tough, dig in and do the job.  That's what we wanted and got so one we go to Sunday...but will it be at Swansea?? 

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