Hamish Rutherford ends Glamorgan’s bid for history

Glamorgan’s bid to make history was ended by Hamish Rutherford’s first century for Derbyshire which guided his team to a draw in the LV County Championship Division Two match at Chesterfield.

The visitors were chasing a fifth consecutive championship victory for the first time but Rutherford batted for more than five hours to score 108 and captain Wayne Madsen was unbeaten on 79 when Derbyshire declared 123 runs ahead on 281 for 3 shortly before 5pm.

Andrew Salter had struck twice with his off-spin before lunch to raise Glamorgan’s hopes but Rutherford and Madsen stayed together for more than 43 overs to add 132 and save the game.

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Derbyshire had trailed by 121 runs at the start of the day and still had a lot of batting to do when Salter removed Billy Godleman and Chesney Hughes in the space of six overs.

The off-spinner had found some bounce bowling from the Lake End but Godleman was trapped playing half forward and a quicker ball accounted for Hughes with the home side still 74 runs short of making Glamorgan bat again.

Another couple of wickets before lunch would really have opened up the door for Glamorgan but instead it was slowly closed by the application of Rutherford and Madsen who batted past tea to make the game safe.

The lift that Salter had occasionally extracted in the morning was absent after lunch, possibly as the sun drew any remaining moisture from the pitch, and there were few alarms for either batsman as Derbyshire moved into credit.

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Madsen reached 6000 championship runs when he got to 32 and the 100 stand came from 187 balls before Glamorgan’s last chance of victory literally slipped through their hands.

Rutherford was on 88 when he edged Colin Ingram to slip where Rudolph juggled but could not hold on and the opener celebrated his reprieve by lofting the next two balls over long on to reach three figures.

At tea, Derbyshire were 58 in front and although Rutherford was lbw to David Lloyd second ball after the interval, Madsen and Wes Durston made sure there were no late alarms by adding 65 in 11 overs before the teams shook hands.

Glamorgan head coach Toby Radford admitted: “There were clearly better batting conditions, the sun shone all day and the ball got a little bit soft and the wicket flatter so it was hard work but I was pleased with the way we bowled, I don’t think we could have done any more and sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

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“We wanted to try and do something that has never been done by Glamorgan before, four in a row has been done but not five so we were going to give it everything so it’s a little bit frustrating but still delighted that it’s July 9th and we are unbeaten in the championship.”

Derbyshire’s elite performance director Graeme Welch said: “We needed to bounce back after we let ourselves down in the previous game against Surrey and we showed great fight with the bat and played some good cricket. We let ourselves down a little bit with the ball so once we get the batting and bowling right together, I think we’ll be alright!

“We just asked for some application and fight and desire and that’s exactly what the lads have shown so we’ve just got to kick on now.”