County Championship: Glamorgan declare to set up run chase chance against Derbyshire

Colin Ingram’s two best Championship scores this season have come against Derbyshire

An attacking declaration from Glamorgan set up the possibility of a final day run-chase with Derbyshire on 68 for nought, leading by 217.

The Welsh side called a halt on 301-5 immediately after avoiding the follow-on.

Aggressive innings from Colin Ingram (82) and Billy Root (53) steered Glamorgan to safety after a patient 65 from Zain Ul Hassan.

But the game descended into farce in the evening gloom.

Derbyshire showed few signs of going after the bowling and building their lead, until a late blast from Luis Reece and Harry Came at very occasional spinner Eddie Byrom in near-darkness.

With 301 needed to avoid the follow-on, Glamorgan resumed very cautiously on 22-0, with Eddie Byrom out for 11 off 69 balls as he drove Zak Chappell to Anuj Dal at point with almost his first attacking shot.

Ul Hassan's first 50 came against Derbyshire in July and so did his second as his patience was rewarded, top-edging Pat Brown for six to reach the landmark.

Ingram provided some welcome acceleration, picking up a range of boundaries despite the slow pitch, but the introduction of Thomson gave Derbyshire hope as he had Ingram dropped at slip before bowling Ul Hassan for a composed score of 65.

Ingram and Kiran Carlson pushed the run-rate up, but Thomson kept his nerve and won an lbw shot against Ingram after the South African left-hander had struck 11 fours.

Root kept up the momentum and although Thomson bowled Carlson through the gate for 36, Root survived a near-stumping and reached his half-century off 61 balls just before tea as the visitors' hopes of enforcing the follow-on faded away.

Root eventually fell, stumped charging at Thomson, but Chris Cooke (41 not out) took them to a second point and the follow-on figure when Glamorgan promptly declared.

Derbyshire started their second innings slowly and eight overs in, the umpires told Glamorgan they could only bowl spin if they wanted to continue in poor light.

Captain Carlson was partnered by Byrom, who had not taken a wicket for two years, but Came and Reece mostly showed exaggerated caution before the umpires belatedly called a merciful halt.

Glamorgan's Colin Ingram told BBC Sport Wales:

"I enjoyed the time in the middle, I've been working on a few things so it was nice to see them come to fruition. We wanted to push the game on and make sure we didn't spend too much time out there, we're trying to force a result so I enjoyed the opportunity to play with a bit more freedom.

"From quite a long way out (we intended to declare), there's been rain and bad light but we felt like we can try to be on the right side of the result.

"There've been (previous) opportunities to force a result and we've tried but we've not quite got there. We've batted at a positive rate though the season and hopefully there's enough overs in the game.

"It's probably the darkest I've ever played cricket in, but we were glad to get overs in."

Derbyshire captain Leus du Plooy told BBC Radio Derby:

"The declaration was not discussed with me and we were slightly surprised, the ball's in our court and we're looking forward to the challenge.

"It was fairly dark (in the evening session) but our intention is to win the game so we wanted the boys to score as many as we can tonight and put them under pressure.

"The worst thing that can happen (in deciding a Derbyshire declaration) is that we fail, but we grow as a team, it's fine. But we'll try to get a result out of it.

"Alex Thomson bowled really nicely there, he's bowled lovely the last three months and Waggy (Mitch Wagstaff) was surprisingly good so it'll be a handful tomorrow."