Worcestershire secure their third win in a row and keep their promotion bid on track
The Worcestershire bowlers continued their dominance over the Glamorgan batters in this game, dismissing them for 179 in their second innings, inside two sessions, as they chased a target of 260. Billy Root provided the only resistance, left stranded on 84, taking his tally for the game to 103 without having been dismissed. If a couple of the other Glamorgan players had shown similar fortitude, the work put in by their bowlers could have been better rewarded. The win gave Worcestershire 20 points and leaves them 24 points ahead of Leicestershire, who had already beaten Gloucestershire by eight wickets.
Worcestershire could only add 18 to their overnight total, Pennington the last man out caught and bowled Jamie McIlroy for two. This gave McIlroy his first five wicket haul and topped a fine effort from the Glamorgan bowlers, who were without their leading wicket-taker Timm van der Gugten following a hamstring injury in the first innings. James Harris had earlier taken the key wicket of Brett D’Oliveira, upon whom Worcestershire’s hopes of building a lead closer to 300 had lain. Despite this a target of 260 looked a tricky one, with the pitch still giving some assistance to the bowlers alongside the quality of the Worcestershire seam attack.
As in their first innings, Glamorgan were soon in trouble at 37/4, Logan van Beek with two and one each for Joe Leach and Ben Allison. Root joined Sam Northeast and they took the score to 47/4 at lunch. The partnership was broken by Leach as Adam Hose dived forward to take a low catch at first slip. Northeast had made 30, but then it was something of a procession as Root watched on from the other end. Chris Cooke looked aggrieved to be given out caught by Jake Libby at second slip and Ben Kellaway was unlucky to kick the ball onto his stumps as he attempted to clear it away. James Harris (14) put on 36 with Root for the eighth wicket before he became Dillon Pennington’s first wicket, Jack Haynes taking a sharp chance at second slip and the last wicket fell just before the tea break. Prior to that D’Oliveira had clearly been told that Worcestershire were behind the over rate and we had four very rapid overs of spin from D’Oliveira himself and Libby, who could have had Root caught at slip attempting a reverse sweep.
The Worcestershire bowlers will be pleased with their efforts in this game, van Beek leading the way on his first class debut for the Pears, ending with match figures of 8/88 alongside his vital half century in the first innings. The Glamorgan attack will feel let down by their batters, having got them back into the game despite being a bowler down. Worcestershire now have a week off while Leicestershire play their game in hand, taking on Sussex at Hove. Glamorgan face Yorkshire in Cardiff, their promotion hopes effectively over.
Interestingly, after the game the Glamorgan head coach, Matthew Maynard felt that the new batch of Dukes balls had a significant influence on the difficulties faced by the batters, with a harder seam meaning that the ball kept on moving about.
