County Championship: Durham victory bid denied by rain

Paul Coughlin's three-wicket blast for Durham on the final day was thwarted by the rain

Durham were denied by the weather with Glamorgan six wickets down and still 62 runs behind, following on.

A heavy downpour ended play with 22 overs remaining to be bowled.

Durham seamers Ben Raine, Brydon Carse and Paul Coughlin bowled their side to the verge of victory.

Kiran Carlson hit 119 in Glamorgan's 305, but needing to survive just 45 overs, they stumbled to 104 for six in their second innings.

Durham made a fine start to their bid to take 15 wickets in the day as Carse found an early edge from Chris Cooke on 32, Raine induced a rash hook to square leg from Dan Douthwaite (12), and Carse pinned Michael Neser lbw for one.

But Carlson and Timm van der Gugten saw off the more threatening bowlers, and Durham were minus Australian spinner Matt Kuhneman because of a stiff back.

Carlson took 12 off a Liam Trevaskis over including a straight six, and played everything on its merits as he reached three figures off 121 balls.

The stand of 110 with van der Gugten, who was dropped at leg-slip on 15 off Paul Coughlin, lasted into the afternoon before Carlson blasted a return catch back at Trevaskis.

Van der Gugten (54) brought up an unexpected second batting point, but Durham were still able to enforce the follow-on.

With their opening bowlers performing bowling superbly, Durham claimed three wickets in the first 10 overs by tea including Marnus Labuschagne for five.

Durham then used leg-side bowling to trap first innings hero Carlson caught at leg-slip off Carse for seven, David Lloyd caught on the square leg boundary off Paul Coughlin (3-27) for 31, and Chris Cooke caught behind for 17 from an attempted pull-shot off Raine.

But with Glamorgan reeling and Durham favourites to wrap up victory, the weather denied the visitors deserved points.

Durham now have 40 points from three games and Glamorgan 21 from two.

Glamorgan are at Leicester, scene of the Welsh side's record team and individual scores in 2022, on Thursday 27 April while Durham host Derbyshire.

Durham coach Ryan Campbell said:

"if you look at the fields the guys were setting, it wasn't normal old cricket, they were trying to think outside the box and that as a coach is all I'm asking.

"They were looking at different ways to get wickets on wickets that are pretty flat and that's what excites me. That's probably the best that Ben Raine has bowled in all three games.

"We're on the right track, playing really positive cricket, and we seem to be at the driving wheel of most games. The batters are making scores and giving the bowlers enough time to take wickets, and the bowling attack has been pretty good.

"Matt Kuhnemann woke up pretty sore yesterday out of the blue, he'll get a scan to make sure everything's ok because we want to play a spinner at the Riverside. Depending on how long he's going to be out for, we may have to re-assess that."

Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales:

"We've been outplayed in the three disciplines over the course of the game and full credit to Durham. We did some decent things against Gloucestershire and a week off may not have helped.

"It's funny in those situations with the other team in the ascendancy and not much to gain, there were one or two good balls, one or two poor shots. Do you attack to try to get to the total (to avoid the innings defeat), we were caught between two ways of thinking."

"I said to the lads, we have got away with one so we've got to look ahead to the Leicester game after the incredible result there last year. We need to play better cricket than this week."