County Championship: Glamorgan miss out on record chase after epic catch in final-ball tie

Glamorgan fell agonisingly short of the highest successful chase in first-class history after their Vitality County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire ended in a dramatic final-ball tie.

The visitors went into the final day at Cheltenham on 222-3, still needing another 370 runs for a famous victory, after James Bracey’s unbeaten 204 and Cameron Bancroft’s 184 saw Gloucestershire declare at 610-5 in their second innings.

Sam Northeast top-scored with 187 for Glamorgan and put on a 153-run fourth-wicket stand with Marnus Labuschagne (119), while contributions from Dan Douthwaite (39) and Timm van der Gugten (31) edged them closer to their unlikely target.

Andy Gorvin’s dismissal left Glamorgan nine down and still needing 31 more for victory, only for Mason Crane (43 not out) to impress to leave them requiring two from the final over the match.

Ajeet Singh Dale’s first four balls were dots and the fifth saw Crane scurry a single, levelling the scores, before a sensational one-handed catch from Bracey – without wearing his ‘keeper 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 rank higher than Glamorgan’s score. The first-class record winning score remains in the possession of Indian side West Zone, who chased down 536 to beat South Zone in 2010.

In Division One, Tom Lawes took 4-26 as Surrey dismissed Essex for 215 to complete a 145-run victory over their nearest rivals at the Kia Oval and increase their lead at the top of the Division One table.

Dean Elgar scored a typically defiant 60 but Surrey’s quicker bowlers chipped away relentlessly once morning rain had cleared, with 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-point win, their sixth from nine Division One matches so far this season, was completed with 25.5 overs to spare and they remain on course for three Championship titles in a row.

Elsewhere, Tom Abell hit a perfectly-paced century as Somerset chased down 410 – the second-highest successful fourth-innings run chase in their history – to beat Warwickshire by five wickets on the final day at Taunton, lifting them up to second in the table.

The former club captain finished unbeaten on 152 as his side made light of their mammoth target, winning with 26 balls to spare. Tom Banton contributed 81, James Rew hit 57 not out and Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored 49 after Warwickshire had declared on their overnight second-innings total of 281-8.

Liam Dawson’s stunning 56 from 28 deliveries gave Hampshire a sensational six-wicket win over Kent, having chased down their victory target of 179 with 47 balls to spare.

After Toby Albert, Fletcha Middleton and James Vince had got them off to a flyer, Dawson made it a cakewalk and saw them complete their third win in four matches to keep them in the title race. Kent remain winless in the County Championship since May 3.

Joe Clarke made his fourth century of the season and blunted the threat posed by Lancashire‘s James Anderson to ensure Nottinghamshire salvaged a draw in Southport.

Clarke passed fifty for the seventh time in 14 first-class innings this season and had put on an unbroken 136 for the fifth wicket with Lyndon James to steer the visitors to 270-4, while the players shook hands with James unbeaten on 43 and Clarke 115no.

Anderson, in contrast to his astonishing spell on Tuesday morning, had figures of 1-25 from 11 overs in two spells on the final day but the eight points the sides collect for the draw enables both of them to pull a little further away from Division One’s relegation zone.

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