Had a day of this match not been flooded out by the Welsh weather, we might have had a very interesting game indeed.
As it was, the weather won out and the match ended with Kent captain Sam Northeast bowling part-time off-spinners for the first time since 2014, with Glamorgan’s Graham Wagg and Craig Meschede enjoying some very friendly bowling.
It was the result many had predicted, but not the finish some had hoped for. Day Four of this County Championship match saw Glamorgan progress steadily from 22/0 to 279/6 – stretching their lead over Kent to 348 – before the umpires and players decided to finally call it a draw.
If there were any headlines to be written from this low-key affair, they would be commanded by Wagg. The ex-Derbyshire allrounder plundered and probed with bat and ball, finishing the encounter in the middle on 64 not out, his second half-century of the game.
It was fitting, at least from a Glamorgan perspective, that Wagg was partnered by Meschede when time was called, the pair adding an unbeaten 80 to their match-altering 160 stand in the first innings, which had propelled Glamorgan from 137/6 to 351 all out.
The Welsh county finished in the ascendency but in truth a result never threatened to emerge, despite two-and-a-half days of engrossing cricket.
Kent’s Mitch Claydon can take considerable pride in his efforts, adding 3/50 to his first innings five-for. The Australian quick took the scalps of Jacques Rudolph, caught at fine leg for 11, Chris Cooke LBW for 17 and David Lloyd (caught in the cordon at the third attempt) for a duck.
Aneurin Donald stepped into the limelight on Day Four too, smearing an extremely bright and occasionally breezy 67 off 68 balls. The promising 19-year-old is enjoying a breakthrough campaign – particularly in white-ball cricket – and this was a knock straight out of a carefree limited overs chase.
There was also a half-century for Glamorgan keeper-batsman Mark Wallace, who scored 52 before edging behind to sub keeper Callum Jackson off Matt Coles.
That Jackson was on the pitch owed to Adam Rouse’s nasty finger injury suffered on Day One, but also to Glamorgan’s kind allowance that a keeper act as substitute.
James Tredwell chipped in with the wicket of Donald LBW, ending a partnership of 80 between Donald and Wagg, before Wagg and Meschede revived their lower order magic, but the game was dead and buried.
The Welsh weather, unfortunately, ensured that.
