County Championship: Chris Cooke leads Glamorgan marathon against Surrey

  • By Nick Webb
  • BBC Sport Wales

Image source, Huw Evans picture agency

Image caption, Glamorgan's Chris Cooke occupied the crease for almost six hours to amass his double century

County Championship: Surrey v Glamorgan

Glamorgan 672-6 dec: C Cooke 205*, Lloyd 121, Carlson 69, J Cooke 68, Douthwaite 59; Virdi 3-140

Surrey 45-0 (15 overs)

Surrey (1 pt) trail Glamorgan (5 pts) by 627 runs

Glamorgan captain Chris Cooke led the way with a career-best 205 not out as his team piled up a massive 672-6 against Surrey.

It was the third highest total in the Welsh county's 100-year history.

Cooke turned the screw on the toiling home bowlers in a remorseless stand of 189 with Dan Douthwaite (59).

Surrey reached 45-0 by the end of a sun-drenched day two at the Oval, with a draw appearing the most likely outcome on a benign pitch.

Cooke hit 18 fours and a six in his chanceless marathon, the highest by a Glamorgan wicket-keeper and easily beating his previous personal best of 171.

The home side, who started on 379-4, were always on top thanks to Cooke's steady scoring in his six hours at the crease, but they were rarely able to accelerate as Surrey's spinners, Amar Virdi, Dan Moriarty and Will Jacks, bowled lengthy containing spells.

Kiran Carlson (69) was the only man out in the first session while Douthwaite, often a powerful striker, played a very restrained support act to Cooke, and Callum Taylor chipped in with 35 not out at the tail end of the visitors' mammoth tally.

After more than five sessions fielding in the heat, Surrey's openers Jamie Smith and Ryan Patel resisted sternly in the last hour, though Smith could have been stumped off Andrew Salter on 13.

Glamorgan captain Chris Cooke told BBC Sport Wales:

"It feels pretty good (to bat for six hours), it was a really good day as the whole batting unit batted really nicely on a very good wicket, but there's a little bit of spin there and a few went a bit low at the end so there could be something in it for us.

"Concentration is about single-ball focus. I had a good chat with the coaches at the end of last season about trying to score more hundreds, so that's something I've tried to target this year.

"It's been a bit fame or famine the last few weeks but nice to put a good performance in, in the last game, and get the team in a good position.

"We know it's going to be really difficult to take wickets, but there's some rough and some foot-holds, so Salts (Andrew Salter) and Callum (Taylor) have a big job over the next two days, we'll keep going and see where we get to."