Glamorgan frustrated by Weston
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Your support makes all the difference.Worcestershire 476-9 dec and 263-7 Glamorgan 398
In order to win this match and return to the top of the Britannic Assurance table, Glamorgan will need to score at a demanding pace today after a long and latterly laboured century by Philip Weston, the Worcestershire opener, frustrated their attempts to wrest the iniative here yesterday.
Worcestershire closed with a lead of 341 and still have three wickets left. Assuming their efforts to winkle out the tail do not meet with immediate success, Glamorgan will be reliant on Tom Moody to set a realistic target with his declaration. The pitch has played well throughout but the Welshmen will not relish a high-speed chase on the last day, regardless of Matthew Maynard's extraordinary performance on Saturday.
The Glamorgan captain, a batsman of immense but largely unfulfilled talent, finished unbeaten on 161 yesterday morning, having faced 145 balls during a three-and-a-half hour innings described by no less an observer than Tom Graveney as the finest he had witnessed on this ground.
Maynard's sublime strokeplay hauled Glamorgan from desperate straits, making possible the addition of 243 runs for the last four wickets. The former England batsmen had scored 34 when his side slipped to 155 for 6, still 171 runs short of avoiding the follow-on, before leading a counter- attack of such ferocious magnificence that the scoreboard was rattling along at more than six per over.
The penultimate partnership put on precisely 100 in 17 overs as Maynard discovered an exuberant ally in Waqar Younis, who struck 46 off 67 balls, including three sixes.
If Saturday belonged to Maynard, yesterday was dominated by Robert Croft, the England off-spinner, who put aside the distraction of tomorrow's scheduled appearance before the English Cricket Board to demonstrate the quality of his off-spin bowling in an unbroken spell of 37 overs that spanned two full sessions. Spinners have rarely prospered at New Road this season, yet Croft managed to achieve a respectable degree of slow turn, finishing the day with 3 for 90 to go with his 3 for 80 from the first innings.
However, there was no shifting Weston, who gained good support from Steven Rhodes in putting a block on Glamorgan's progress.
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