County Championship: Glamorgan hold up Durham victory charge

Dan Douthwaite shows his frustration after being dismissed for 96

Durham's victory charge against Glamorgan was held up by Dan Douthwaite and Andrew Salter as the visitors mustered late resistance.

Their stand of 163 for the seventh wicket came after Durham looked set to wrap up an innings win with a day to spare.

Glamorgan still trail by 73 runs at 333-7.

Chris Rushworth claimed his 50th first-class wicket of the season, dismissing opener Hamish Rutherford for 71.

Douthwaite's innings of 96 was a career-best in the Championship, as he hit 16 fours and faced 185 balls before he was caught at mid-on trying to hit Liam Trevaskis for a boundary to reach three figures.

Salter joined him shortly after lunch in glorious sunshine and batted through to the close for 82 not out, calmly seeing off 202 deliveries and moving to within six of his best first-class score.

Their partnership was the best effort for the seventh wicket for Glamorgan against Durham.

The accurate home attack had again blown holes in the Glamorgan top order, with Paul Coughlin once more claiming the best figures, of three for 45, to add to his impressive 4-11 in the first innings.

But after Coughlin dismissed Chris Cooke at 151-6, Durham could make no further inroads until Douthwaite's dismissal, and Timm van der Gugten survived the final eight overs alongside Salter.

Rushworth's landmark, the sixth time he has reached 50 wickets in a season, came when the classy Rutherford mishit a pull to square leg.

He is only behind Simon Brown, who achieved the feat seven times, in Durham's 29-year history of first-class cricket.

While Glamorgan can take consolation from their fightback, the delay in wrapping up victory should not be enough to take the gloss off an impressive return to first-class cricket for Durham.

Durham bowler Chris Rushworth told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"It's nice to get 50 and to pass those milestones, but I don't think that day's gone quite how everyone thought it might have done, hopefully it contributes towards a win [on day four].

"A chance last night (Rutherford being dropped) could have changed the way the game went, but that's cricket, he played some nice shots and had a bit of luck.

"It's turned into a really nice wicket, but because we played so well the first couple of days, we've got the luxury of still being well ahead in the game.

"Simon Brown's record is hopefully something I can chase down next year, fingers crossed it's the seventh [50-wicket haul]."

Glamorgan all-rounder Dan Douthwaite told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a big goal of ours to take it as deep as we could. We said that if we were coming back in the morning, that would be quite a bit of momentum to take into the remaining games.

"We're happy we showed that fight, grit and determination we've been missing but personally it's very bittersweet to miss out on my first hundred for the club.

"This pitch has got flatter, our main objective was just ticking things off over by over.

"Being stuck on 96 for quite a while, I back myself against spin to go over the top so I'd argue it was the right shot but I didn't get anywhere near the ball. Live by the sword, die by the sword, I decided to go through with it and hindsight is a great thing."

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