Ingram earns Glamorgan a rain-hit draw against Glos

Colin Ingram, the top Championship run-scorer in 2024, plays a shotImage source, Huw Evans agency
Image caption,

Colin Ingram was the top Championship run-scorer in 2024

Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol (day four)

Gloucestershire 546: Bancroft 163, O Price 101, Hammond 54; Leonard 3-122

Glamorgan 385 (107.5 overs): Ingram 103, Akhter 5-85 & 288-4 Ingram 77*, Ul Hassan 55; M Taylor 2-47

Gloucestershire (15 pts) drew with Glamorgan (13 pts)

Match scorecard

Gloucestershire's hopes of a first championship win in Bristol since September 2022 were frustrated as Colin Ingram again led Glamorgan resistance.

First-innings centurion Ingram hit 77 not out, sharing a gritty fourth-wicket stand of 117 with Kiran Carlson (49) as Glamorgan reached 288-4 between the showers, following on.

Matt Taylor took two early wickets as Glamorgan were three down inside the first five overs of the final day.

But Ingram, Carlson and Ben Kellaway (30 not out) blunted home hopes despite the valiant efforts of their seam attack.

Gloucestershire were left to reflect on a much-improved display from their opening defeat at Derby with an immediate impact from new captain Cameron Bancroft, despite the familiar problem of forcing a win on their home pitch.

Meanwhile Glamorgan managed to salvage pride with the bat, largely thanks to South African veteran Ingram, after a dreadful start to the match with the ball.

With Glamorgan starting the fourth day still 55 runs behind at 106-0, Gloucestershire made a flying start, dismissing Eddie Byrom, Sam Northeast and Zain Ul Hassan (55) in successive overs.

Matt Taylor induced both openers to edge to slip after their century stand the previous evening, while Ajeet Singh Dale had Northeast caught behind, and could have got rid of Carlson early on, with Chris Dent almost pulling off a miracle grab at short-leg.

Both Carlson and Ingram were happy to grind it out against a tiring attack, but a precarious lead of 20 at lunch left Gloucestershire still in the hunt.

Carlson and Ingram extended the lead to 78 before Ollie Price found some bounce and Carlson was caught behind.

Kellaway smacked the off-spinner for six to get off the mark before showers dampened home morale, with the final session taking on a desultory air despite Singh Dale's valiant efforts in particular.

Gloucestershire travel to Kent on Friday 17 April, with Australia's Cameron Green set for his debut, while Glamorgan take on Middlesex at Lord's.

Gloucestershire captain Cameron Bancroft told BBC Radio Bristol:

"It was really exciting and a privilege to lead the side out, Graeme (van Buuren) has done an awesome job so it's about continuing that and I enjoyed it out there.

"I just went out and looked to score, Ollie played beautifully out there and Miles kept things going forward so we set ourselves up for a chance to win this game and that's all you can ask for.

"It's hard considering the options, but we felt the best way to win the game was to try to hopefully make some quick inroads by continuing to bowl (enforcing the follow-on), and we gave absolutely everything.

"The way Zaman (Akhter), Ajeet, Matt Taylor, Tom Price charged in, our effort was phenomenal and our spinners tried hard. We were well on top of the game and that's the positive."

Glamorgan coach Richard Dawson told BBC Sport Wales:

"What we have done is show character with the bat, we were under pressure after that first innings, but it was tough to bowl on and create chances.

"Today we talked about game management, when those three wickets went down we rebuilt with Kiran and Colin and they put us in a decent position, then Ben Kellaway batted really nicely.

"Colin's just really calm in the changing room, how he talks to the lads, and you can see how he goes about it out there, how he's so calm and works out the game situation.

"(Improving with the ball) is about how we start sessions, rather than reacting and pulling back the sessions, how can we get on the front foot and put the opposition under pressure?"