Crafty Crofty has a grand day

Date: Thursday 22 July 2010

Robert Croft took his 1,000th first class wicket for Glamorgan as Leicestershire suffered a highly frustrating second day of the LV=County Championship game at Swansea.

After having to sit around for a large proportion of the day because of rain - only 28.5 overs were possible throughout - County lost their final five wickets for 22 runs inbetween the hefty showers to be dismissed for 247.

The team then saw Glamorgan reduce the deficit to 202 as they made 45 without loss before yet another downpour hit the ground.

It was certainly a day for the slow men as Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan became the first test player to 800 wickets and Croft also had cause for celebration.

Only twelve overs had been possible between lunch and tea but during that time, the wily operator had Wayne White caught down the leg side by Mark Wallace to reach the milestone.

It gave him the third wicket he needed to reach the thousand and the bowler received a standing ovation. He finished with an impressive analysis of 3-54 from 33 probing overs.

County, who resumed on 225-5, lost key man Tom New early in the piece. The team were six runs short of their second batting point when rain again halted play after 110 overs.

The players were not able to come out again until 5pm, and in the final session, Leicestershire lost their final three wickets for three runs.

It all left a highly disappointing situation given the team had been going along so well at 201-2 on the first day. The statistics show that the last eight wickets fell for just 46 runs in 32.2 overs.

Mark Cosgrove then set off at pace – as he did during the win against County at Grace Road earlier this season – and he was well supported by Gareth Rees.

The openers were unbeaten on 27 and 15 respectively when the players were again forced to make a quick exit from the ground.

Dashes to avoid the downpours had been a theme of the day. Rain had fallen in the early hours at St Helen’s, which meant the covers were still on when the players would generally be warming up on the outfield.

Showers continued to fall throughout the morning and that meant the players could not take to the field at all before lunch, which was taken at the normal time.

Umpires George Sharp and Richard Illingworth, who had made inspections throughout the morning, then made a further one during the interval and decided play could start on time after the break.

When the players emerged, young seamer James Harris was straight in on the action. The bowler, like yesterday, extracted good movement and he found New’s inside edge to end his innings.

Wallace completed the formalities and Jigar Naik, who lost four partners in making 12 not out, stroked two off side boundaries before Croft’s champagne moment.

It was literally the case; play was halted while Glamorgan bowler Don Shepherd – who also took his 1,000th first class wicket for Glamorgan on the ground en route to claiming more than 2,000 in total – and President Peter Walker presented Croft with a bottle of the good stuff.

Croft, whose journey started by dismissing Graham Thorpe at the Oval in 1989, became only the ninth player since 1945 to do the 10,000 run-1,000 wicket double for one county.

Leicestershire have three players who have done the rare double, with Croft becoming the 39th in total. John King, Ewart Astill and George Geary all achieved the feat for Leicestershire before the Second World War.

In fact, Astill, whose cricket career spanned four decades, was just 121 runs away from completing the 20,000-2,000 double when he re-joined the Army in 1939, which is truly remarkable when you think about it.

Play was then halted again with the score on 244-7 after the bonus point allocation of 110 overs, with Naik unbeaten on ten and Claude Henderson one. Dean Cosker and David Harrison wrapped the innings up after the second lengthy stoppage of the day.

Henderson was caught in the cordon by captain Jamie Dalrymple off the pace bowler, while Cosker had Nadeem Malik was caught by Jim Allenby at slip and trapped Matthew Hoggard leg before in finishing with 3-35.

Leicestershire then needed early breakthroughs but they were not forthcoming as the batsmen settled. To make matters worse, the left-handed duo also found the boundary on seven occasions in the play possible.

Cosgrove clipped through mid wicket and also drive through the off side three times, while Rees played through backward point before adding two leg side boundaries.

It means Leicestershirs’s lead stands at 202 at the halfway stage and the team need to react positively tomorrow to ensure they regain some control of a match they were going so well in at one stage yesterday.