Glamorgan fell woefully short of the greatest successful run chase in first-class history after their Vitality County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire ended in a dramatic last-ball tie.
The visitors went into the final day at Cheltenham on 222-3, still needing 370 more runs for a famous victory, after James Bracey’s unbeaten 204 and Cameron Bancroft’s 184 had seen Gloucestershire declare at 610-5 in their second innings.
Sam Northeast top-scored for Glamorgan with 187 and made a fourth-wicket stand of 153 with Marnus Labuschagne (119), while contributions from Dan Douthwaite (39) and Timm van der Gugten (31) took them closer to their unlikely target.
Sam Northeast made a brilliant 187 off 277 deliveries
Andy Gorvin’s sending off left Glamorgan nine points behind and still needing 31 more points for victory, only for Mason Crane (43 not out) to impress and force them to score two from the final on the game.
Ajeet Singh Dale’s first four balls were runs and the fifth saw Crane rush for a single, levelling the scores, before a sensational one-handed catch from Bracey – without wearing his keeper’s glove – removed Jamie McIlroy (five) and dismissed Glamorgan for 592.
Only England’s 654-5 against South Africa in Durban in 1939 and Maharashtra’s 604 against Bombay in 1949 are higher than Glamorgan’s. The record for a first-class win remains with the Indian team from West Zone, who beat South Zone in 2010 by a score of 536.
In the First Division, Tom Lawes took 4-26 as Surrey dismissed Essex for 215 to complete a 145-point victory over their nearest rivals at the Kia Oval and extend their lead at the top of the Division One standings.
Dean Elgar scored a typically defiant 60 but Surrey’s faster bowlers chipped away relentlessly once the morning rain had cleared, with the 21-year-old Lawes first taking two wickets in successive balls and then returning after tea to break further Essex resistance from Paul Walter and Michael Pepper.
Surrey’s 20-run win, their sixth from nine Division One games so far this season, was completed with 25.5 overs to play and they remain in the hunt for three consecutive league titles.
Elsewhere, Tom Abell hit a perfectly paced century as Somerset chased 410 – the second highest successful fourth-innings chase in their history – to beat Warwickshire by five wickets on the final day at Taunton, lifting them to second in the table.
The former club captain finished unbeaten on 152 as his side performed well against a colossal target, winning with 26 balls to spare. Tom Banton chipped in with 81 runs, James Rew hit 57 not out and Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored 49 after Warwickshire declared their second-innings total of 281-8 of the night.
Liam Dawson’s superb 56 of 28 throws gave Hampshire a sensational six-wicket victory against Kentafter reaching their winning target of 179 with 47 balls to play.
After Toby Albert, Fletcha Middleton and James Vince got them off to a flying start, Dawson made the win a piece of cake and saw them claim their third win in four games to stay in the title race. Kent are without a County Championship win since May 3.
Joe Clarke made his fourth century of the season and eased the threat posed by LancashireJames Anderson makes sure Nottinghamshire salvaged a draw at Southport.
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James Anderson produced a superb performance on his first outing for Lancashire, taking six wickets in nine overs.
Clarke passed fifty for the seventh time in 14 first-class innings this season and made an unbroken 136 for the fifth wicket with Lyndon James to lead the visitors to 270-4, while the players shook hands with James unbeaten on 43 and Clarke 115no.
Anderson, in contrast to his stunning sequence on Tuesday morning, had figures of 1-25 from 11 overs in two sequences on the final day but the eight runs picked up by both teams for the draw sees them both move further away from the Division One relegation zone.
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