Jacques Rudolph set up a crushing victory for Glamorgan by scoring his first century of this season’s County Championship. GARETH STEVENS reports.
Glamorgan beat Kent by an innings 11 runs at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff as their batting lineup finally clicked. Rudolph scored the Welsh club’s first century of the championship. His innings at the top of the order set the foundation for Glamorgan to push for what turned out to be a convincing victory.
Kent won the toss and elected to bat, but failed to make use of the favourable conditions and were dismissed for 253. Glamorgan then went about batting the visitors out of the game. There were contributions throughout, but Rudolph’s 103 and Jim Allenby’s 100 guided the hosts to 527.
Michael Hogan proved to be Kent’s chief destroyer, as he took his second five wicket haul of the match. The opening bowler finished with match figures of 10-125 and ensured that Kent’s resistance ended just before the lunch break on the final day.
There were a number of South Africans that featured in a County Championship round characterised by minimal weather interventions and consequently results. Almost all of them threatened, without kicking on and delivering match altering performances.
Surrey beat Derbyshire by 10 wickets in Derby. Wayne Madsen managed just 1 and 26 in his two innings for Derbyshire. Hashim Amla’s single innings for Surrey yielded 27, but the Proteas Test skipper will be pleased with the comfortable victory.
Warwickshire beat Northamptonshire by an innings and 105 runs. Richard Levi was brought into the Northamptonshire side after showing impressive T20 form and scored a brisk 43 in the first innings, but failed in the second as he made just 7. All-rounder Andrew Hall chipped in with the bat, scoring 45 and 25, but went wicketless. Despite their best efforts, they were outplayed by a powerful Warwickshire unit.
Keaton Jennings’ Durham beat Ashwell Prince’s Lancashire by 27 runs at Chester-le-Street. Both Saffas got starts but didn’t cash in and influence the outcome of this closely contested match. Jennings’ two contributions were 23 and 12, while Prince scored 49 and 19 in his two visits to the crease.
