Is it asking for trouble to start talking about declarations?

Day 2: Glamorgan 448 v Gloucestershire 179 - 1.

 

About the only intriguing thing to come from day 2 of this match was the will-they, won't-they intrigue of whether Glos will invite Glamorgan to set a target for Gloucestershire to chase when day 4 finally rolls around.

Admittedly there is a fair amount of cricket still to be played until those options are seriously considered, but with the pitch looking like it was dug up and dropped in from the M5 we are fairly confident that Glos will be able to bat through to the middle of the afternoon without collapsing. Should they bat till an hour after lunch they should be somewhere around 300-350. A declaration would then allow Glamorgan to setup Glos with a total of around 300 to chase on the final day.

Given that both sides currently reside in the bottom half of division 2 a draw is of no use to either side. It would be an incredibly negative move if either team refused this scenario.

Gloucestershire would surely fancy this opportunity. If the pitch continues to be as benign, and the sun continues to shine then Klinger's men would start favourites at chasing down any total they do get set. With this in mind, it wouldn't surprise us if Glamorgan erred on the side of caution. Maybe they should phone Glenn Chapple and ask him for his advice on declaring in order to set up a run chase. Last week Chapple needlessly chose to bat on for an extra 6 overs on the final morning. By doing so he guaranteed Glos would never attempt to chase the total and the time he took out of the game proved crucial, as last man Liam Norwell only had to face one delivery to save the game.

Earlier in the day Craig Miles took his obligatory 5 for. Miles now has 25 wickets in 5 matches this season. not bad for an 18 year old. Whilst we suspect he is getting a few extra wickets because there is no one else really taking wickets in the Glos attack, you've still got to take the wickets. An attack with Miles and just one of Will Gidman and Ian Saxelby would suddenly look a lot more threatening. An attack with all 3 would be like mediocre cricketing nirvana.

Miles' efforts were not enough to prevent Murray Goodwin from notching his 68th first class hundred and first for Glamorgan. Goodwin has been a very fine player over the years, but at the age of 41 and considering he has struggled to hit the ball at all this season this does rather add to the belief that scoring runs against Gloucestershire is now very similar to scoring runs against the universities.

Fingers crossed that the batsmen pad their averages this morning.