Bob Willis Trophy: Gloucestershire held to draw by Glamorgan rearguard

Chris Cooke's unbeaten 59 helped Glamorgan hold out until the close

Gloucestershire were held to an unlikely draw by Glamorgan as Chris Cooke and Timm van der Gugten batted out the final session.

Gloucestershire claimed eight wickets by tea and looked set for victory in the Bob Willis Trophy encounter.

David Payne and Matt Taylor took three wickets apiece as the seamers dominated again.

But Cooke (59 not out) and Van der Gugten (30 not out) showed late defiance.

The Netherlands bowler, who dislocated his finger in the field the previous evening, showed the way to his teammates with a display of defensive grit to frustrate the visitors.

Nick Selman's 55 was the only other significant defiance for the home side, as Payne's eight-wicket haul in the match proved his second-best for Gloucestershire.

Ryan Higgins took 1-32 in a hard-working 25-over effort, but Gloucestershire called a halt to their efforts with 13 overs of the match left and Glamorgan leading by 132 runs.

Gloucestershire are third in the six-team Central Group before their trip to neighbours Somerset, while Glamorgan are fifth after three rounds as they head to Northampton.

Glamorgan captain Chris Cooke told BBC Sport Wales:

"I was happy to be there at the end but we haven't played to the standards that we set last year, we need to be hard on ourselves and we've got a lot to improve on with two games to put that right.

"Timm is probably one of the best number 10s in the country and he showed that again, I had a lot of confidence in him. He batted beautifully in our highest partnership of the game.

"It's covering over the cracks though, we've got first-innings frailties, I'm part of that and we need to sort that out and get first-innings runs."

Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson told BBC Radio Bristol:

"It ended up being a really good game and quite interesting. We wanted to continue how we bowled in the second innings against Warwickshire and the first innings here.

"We were happy if we performed to the standards we set last week and we did that, but we couldn't quite force the win.

"All the bowlers bowled really well and Payney picked up those wickets, he could have had another five-for.

"It's exciting to play Somerset in a four-day match, a great opportunity for our boys against a side that's done very well in Division One for a number of years."