[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Four

Morning: Tuesday brought the hottest conditions of the season so far, and resuming on 98-2, Mitch and Tom Fell didn't hang around, piling on fifty runs in the first twelve overs of the day. Even after the latter was caught down the legside for 36 and the former was stumped for 94, Worcestershire batted on, and Dolly brought up the 300 lead just before the interval. Reaching lunch on 228-4 with the lead extended to 309, it seemed inevitable that the declaration would be made in the break...

Afternoon: But when the teams emerged, the Pears batted on. Whether the skipper thought taking defeat out of the equation was the most important thing, or if he simply believed there was enough in the pitch to bowl the visitors out within fifty overs, Worcs added another 48 runs to the total before finally calling it a day and giving Glamorgan a nominal target of 358 for the win. And for a marvellous new-ball spell, it looked as though the decision was a stroke of genius; Joe Leach himself dismissed Nick Selman LBW for a duck with the second ball, before Dillon Pennington had Kiran Carlson caught behind for 2 and Leach pinned Charlie Hemphrey leg-before for 1. At 5-3 it was the dream start, and had it continued in the same fashion then Glamorgan wouldn't have lasted much longer, but Billy Root and Chris Cooke steadied the ship to take the Welshmen in for tea on 57-3.

Evening: To their credit, Worcestershire stuck at the task through the closing stages of a punishing day, and every time it seemed like hope was just about gone, a breakthrough came. Pennington had Root caught down the legside for 34 just before five o'clock, postponing the handshake that might otherwise have come. Charlie Morris claimed the wicket of Tom Cullen LBW for 17 with just twelve overs left, and when Dan Douthwaite departed in the same fashion to give Jake Libby his first scalp for the county, there was still a sniff of a magical finish. But despite Libby bowling Chris Cooke with eighteen balls remaining, there was too little time to press on for the positive result that might have been.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: A solid performance with both bat and ball from the Pears, but naturally all the attention is on the bizarrely late declaration from Joe Leach. 300 was easily a large enough lead to put the game beyond Glamorgan's reach, and it could be argued that 250 would have been even more of a dangling carrot for the visitors to snatch at. The ten overs of the afternoon session wasted on unnecessary batting might not have yielded the extra three wickets - the Welshmen dug deep and defended well - but it would have piled yet more pressure on them at the death, and few would have faulted the skipper for declaring at lunch. As it is, Worcestershire slip into second place, just three points behind Somerset but having wasted an opportunity to retain and extend their lead at the top.