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Glamorgan keep promotion hopes alive as rain spares awkward finish

Ben Gibbon impressed with his left-arm seam on the first day at Chelmsford Andrew Miller

Glamorgan 295 (Gill 92, Byrom 67, Cook 51, Pennington 4-78, Gibbon 4-87) and 5 for 0 drew with Worcestershire 454 for 9 dec (Roderick 172*, Leach 87, Barnard 75, Pollock 54, van der Gugten 4-81)

Glamorgan moved into the second promotion place in Division Two with this rain-affected draw against Worcestershire, ahead of their crunch match against main rivals Middlesex next week.

Eight points each for the draw, along with four bonus points for Glamorgan and six for Worcestershire, took Glamorgan seven points ahead of Middlesex while Worcestershire may feel their promotion hopes have almost gone.

There was only 55 minutes play possible before the rain came down in Cardiff, in which time Glamorgan added an extra batting bonus point and got within sight of a second while attempting to save the follow-on, before losing their final wicket five runs short of the first target and ten runs short of the second.

That allowed Ben Gibbon and Dillon Pennington to end the Glamorgan first innings with four wickets apiece, while Glamorgan's Chris Cooke moved onto an unbeaten half-century.

Worcestershire's unlikely aim at the start of play was to claim 12 wickets in the day, to get the win which would have put them right back in the promotion race. And though they were able to enforce the follow-on to keep that dream alive, Glamorgan openers David Lloyd and Ed Byrom only had to survive nine balls before the rain came down and the game was abandoned early afternoon.