Northants and Glamorgan beaten by the weather

Northants and Glamorgan played out a leisurely draw on the final day of their LV= County Championship Division Two match at Wantage Road, after the weather had scuppered any chance of a positive result.
Adam Rossington (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)Adam Rossington (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
Adam Rossington (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

After less than 85 overs were possible in the opening three days, morning discussions were held between captains Alex Wakely and Graham Wagg, the latter standing in for the injured Mark Wallace, but no agreement on a contrived finish could be reached.

Instead the match petered out into a draw with both sides going through the motions for much of the day - Northants taking their overnight 128 for five onto 278, with half-centuries for Adam Rossington and David Murphy, before Glamorgan reached 99 for three ahead of the handshakes.

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The draw means Northants take 10 points to Glamorgan’s nine, but with Essex beating Leicestershire, a third-place finish looks beyond both sides heading into the final round of fixtures.

Overnight rain caused a 30-minute delay to proceedings, but once play got underway Rossington doubled his overnight 25 to move to a seventh fifty of the season, scoring at a run a ball before chipping Dewi Penrhyn Jones to mid-off on 59, the bowler finishing with 3-55 on debut.

Rory Kleinveldt also fell before lunch, bowled by Michael Hogan for seven, but either side of the interval Murphy completed a composed unbeaten 58, in what could be his last innings at Wantage Road with the wicketkeeper out of contract at the end of the season.

He enjoyed support from Olly Stone and Muhammad Azharullah, who both made 20 in stands of 37 and 29 for the eighth and ninth wicket respectively, before Wagg, deputising after Wallace injured his calf batting on the second day, removed Azharullah and last man Richard Gleeson to claim 4-77.

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With Wallace also unable to bat second time around, Andrew Salter joined James Kettleborough in opening the batting, but could make just four before edging Azharullah to first slip.

There was some concern for Northants as Stone pulled up after bowling only seven balls, limping off holding his side just a day after being named in the England Performance Programme squad.

Gleeson was making his Championship debut for Northants, having also played against the Australians, and took his first two wickets either side of tea, Kettleborough caught behind and Colin Ingram lbw, both having made 14.

The latter would prove be the last meaningful action of any note before the teams shook hands shortly after 4:20pm, Rossington sending down the final over, his first in professional cricket, six deliveries of tame medium pace that summed up the day’s proceedings.

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Northants head coach David Ripley was left to reflect on a frustrating week, but after discussions about any possible declarations broke down, he was content to play out the game for bonus points.

“The weather’s played a big part in this game: bad light, wet outfield, quite a frustrating four days,” he said. “We were confident, it was a key game as we were on the same amount of points as Glamorgan and it was a game we were looking to win and unfortunately the weather’s beaten both teams.

“We did debate some declarations this morning but we couldn’t quite agree on the total, we were a little bit apart so we just went this way and played the cricket for bonus points.”