County Championship: Luis Reece and Brooke Guest earn Derbyshire draw at Glamorgan

Derbyshire's Luis Reece scored 590 in four County Championship innings against Glamorgan in 2023

Luis Reece and Brooke Guest steered Derbyshire to a draw at Glamorgan on a rain-affected final day in Cardiff.

Set an improbable 401 to win, Derbyshire were reduced to 79-3.

But making the most of a docile pitch, Reece hit an unbeaten 91 and Guest made 72 not out in an unbroken stand of 146 as the visitors closed on 225-3.

This was a second successive draw for both sides and an underwhelming conclusion to a game which had offered some excitement in its first two days.

That was partly because of the pitch, which had turned prodigiously during the early stages of the match and had helped Derbyshire spinner Alex Thomson take 12 wickets across Glamorgan's two innings.

But the batting surface became much flatter from day three onwards, with the home side declaring on 361-7 to set their opponents a somewhat notional 401 to win.

Derbyshire started the final morning on 40-1 and were soon two down when their captain - and former Glamorgan skipper - David Lloyd was run out by Mason Crane without adding to his overnight score of 24.

Wayne Madsen was the next wicket to fall as he was bowled by James Harris for 25, before Reece and Guest steadied the away side.

Despite the placid nature of the pitch, Glamorgan were still hopeful of securing their first win of the season - but those aspirations were dealt a blow by a heavy downpour shortly before the players were due to return to the field after lunch.

Once play eventually resumed after almost an hour was lost, Reece and Guest were rarely troubled during an uneventful afternoon's play as the game meandered to an inevitable draw.

Next up for Glamorgan is a trip to Northamptonshire on Friday, while Derbyshire will host Leicestershire.

Glamorgan are almost certain to be without seamer Jamie McIlroy, who damaged his shoulder in the field, with fellow bowlers Timm van der Gugten (calf injury) and Harry Podmore (broken thumb) side-lined for several more weeks.

Glamorgan's James Harris told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's been a really interesting game, it spun quite sharply in the first day and a half but it got more placid and easier to bat on.

"The game was in the balance yesterday morning. We played really well with the bat to swing it in our favour, but we couldn't manage to get the wickets today in some tough conditions with the wind and the rain. We'll take positives, but disappointed not to get closer to winning.

"I haven't seen a [spinning championship] pitch like that on day one - it could make it quite exciting for the rest of the year if we can play on some pitches like that. We need to win more often here.

"I bowled OK, I tried to bowl very straight. I quite like the Kookaburra [ball] contrary to many around the country, and it's good fun when it starts reversing, easier than the Dukes [ball]."

Derbyshire captain David Lloyd told BBC Derby Sport:

"Delighted to make my debut after a frustrating [washed out] week last week. Personally I started well in the first innings but I was disappointed I didn't go on and get a big score on a wicket that was quite tricky on the first couple of days.

"The lads' work ethic and commitment was superb, but unfortunately the wicket got a bit flatter and we couldn't get that breakthrough in Glamorgan's second innings.

"But the way Brooke and Luis played was outstanding. That being our first proper game, we were a couple of days behind them but by the end we started to get going.

"[Glamorgan] is in the past now, my future's at Derby and there was nothing weird at all [about the occasion], it's nice to be here with Derbyshire."