County Championship: Battling Chris Cooke earns Glamorgan draw at Durham

Chris Cooke's unbeaten 134 came off 224 balls and included 17 boundaries towards the Glmaorgan total

Chris Cooke led the way as Glamorgan batted through the final day to earn an unlikely draw away to Division Two leaders Durham.

Cooke came in in the first over of the day and battled through for a season's best of 134 not out.

He added 153 unbeaten runs with Timm van der Gugten, who ended on 52 not out, with Glamorgan surviving to finish on 426-7.

The total of 1446 runs was the highest match tally at Chester-le-Street.

It was the second successive match in which Glamorgan had salvaged a draw after being streets behind on first innings, after surviving more than six sessions at Sussex.

The match seemed to have been turned decisively in Durham's favour by contributions down the batting order in their first innings, but their attack could claim only three wickets on the final day as the threat of variable bounce did not produce wickets.

Durham's day started well as they claimed a wicket in the first over when in-form Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson, on 35, clipped Bas de Leede to short mid-wicket.

Billy Root (35) and Cooke added 72 but they could not develop the partnership into the major stand needed as Ben Raine induced Root to edge behind.

Glamorgan's efforts to build a lead were aided by the unusual award of five penalty runs when the ball struck a discarded helmet behind the wicket-keeper.

But the visitors were still just 10 ahead at lunch, at 250-6, and Craig Miles came to the party when he knocked back Andy Gorvin's off-stump for 12.

Cooke had glanced one just out of the fingertips of diving 'keeper Ollie Robinson, but he and Van der Gugten dug in for the rest of the afternoon session, unperturbed by Scott Borthwick's constant field changes as he tried everything to break the batters' rhythm.

The pair kept their concentration after tea, with Cooke eventually facing 224 balls and striking 17 boundaries in his marathon effort, while Van der Gugten held out for 146 deliveries before the teams shook hands at 17:00 BST.

Both teams have just one day off before returning to T20 action on Friday, 16 June, Durham hosting Derbyshire while Glamorgan make the trek to face Essex, as well as having to field a second XI on their Finals Day the previous day at Wormsley.

Glamorgan's Chris Cooke told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's nice to contribute to saving the game and being unbeaten isn't something we should sniff at, but we'd like to be on the other side of these games. There's been a lot of character shown but we need to be winning a few more.

"Timm is a very good number nine, he's very solid and we always seem to bat well together, so we knew if we could keep eking the overs out, it would get easier and that's what happened.

"The wicket was pretty placid and if you were really diligent with your technique, there weren't too many balls that could get through your defence.

"It is a real good trait in a team to have that strong backbone and people putting up their hands, being hard to beat is what we want to be, but if we want to go up, we need to start getting more wins on the board."