Glamorgan hit by weather and Watling’s battling ton

GLAMORGAN’S slim hopes of promotion took a huge hit courtesy the weather and BJ Watling in their Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash against Durham at Emirates Riverside.

Only 15 overs of play were possible on day two due to heavy rain, although the home side were able to record two batting bonus points, while Watling notched his 17th first-class century to frustrate the Glamorgan attack.

Marchant de Lange took the two wickets to fall on day two, but Durham were able to grind out a strong platform for the rest of the game.

Glamorgan need to win the contest and hope Gloucestershire are unable to claim enough points from their clash against Northamptonshire to earn the final promotion spot to Division One. However, the rain has left their margin for error next to nothing heading into the final two days of the match.

The hosts resumed on 197-6 with Watling and Ben Raine at the crease. However, it took only three deliveries for Glamorgan to make the breakthrough. Raine got caught in two minds whether to leave a De Lange delivery and played on to his own stumps to fall for 26.

Leg-byes brought up the 200 for the home side and the first batting point of the game before Brydon Carse upped the run rate as he pierced the off-side with regularity to find the fence. He was looking comfortable at the crease, scoring a brisk 27, but then fended a rising ball from De Lange through to Chris Cooke behind the stumps.

Watling worked his way through the nineties and took his opportunity on 99 to send a quick single into the leg-side, notching his first hundred for Durham from 201 deliveries.

The home side secured their second bonus point after passing the 250-run mark, solidifying their position in the match before rain brought a premature to the day.

Afterwards, De Lange said: “We’ve obviously frustrated with the weather around. We knew it was coming.

“We would have loved to have scooped up the four wickets this morning. It didn’t go that way for us, but we’re still in it and there’s still two days left so we’ll see how it goes.

“Everyone here and around the country is watching the points system, but at the same time we know what we need to do. We need to go session-by-session and get as many points as we can.”