Clinical County crush woeful Welsh

Needing a determined rearguard if they were to have any chance of getting out of a deep hole, they contrived to do nothing of the sort as the hosts’ seamers were given a succession of easy targets.

Only one partnership in excess of 50 and no individual reaching that mark tells you all you need to know about the fare on offer but I’m sure Stephen Peters’ men couldn’t care less.

The maximum 24-point haul, even if Essex get the better of Gloucestershire in Bristol, keeps them well in control of the second promotion spot and it will take a remarkable turn of the tide for this not to be secured.

With a healthy lead and two days in which to do their work, patience shaped as the key for the home side and in the morning they stuck to this ideal fairly well.

It helps when a bowler like Trent Copeland is chugging away from one end and it was he who achieved the breakthrough when Gareth Rees was expertly taken low down by David Sales at second slip.

Given the form that he has been in and the fact he can, and often does, bat for long periods, Murray Goodwin would’ve been the wicket most desired and his stint was a brief one as he attempted to work a straight ball through the leg-side.

That was it as far as successes went before the lunch interval as the pair of Will Bragg and Chris Cooke knuckled down to their task.

So often a break can disrupt a batsman’s rhythm as Bragg found to his cost when, against Muhammad Azharullah who hadn’t threatened that much, he chopped on while trying to cut a ball that was too close to him.

This was before half of the deficit had been wiped out and that landmark had barely been passed when Jim Allenby had his pads located by a Steven Crook delivery that skidded through.

At the other end, Cooke was going along nicely but he then found a way to get out as he gloved a pull down the leg-side eight short of a half-century.

That constituted Azharullah’s second wicket and he was joined on that tally in the next over when Crook found Mark Wallace’s edge.

Four wickets for 31 runs made a mockery of a surface that, once the new ball hardness disappeared, had flattened out considerably.

But you can’t expect number eight to do what those above can’t and John Glover had barely taken in the surroundings when he essayed a drive at Azharullah and presented David Murphy with his third catch of the day.

That became four for the keeper following a brief period of resistance when Andrew Salter fell to Andrew Hall and Dean Cosker top-edged a hook off Copeland to fine-leg.

And all that was left was for Hall to get rid of last man Mike Reed, via a sharp catch at slip by Copeland, to wrap things up just before four o’clock.

And the outcome is that promotion is now staring the County in the face with three games left on their fixture list and the hoped for will become the reality if this kind of form can be maintained.