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Zaman Akhter five-for sets up exciting final day

13 April 2025

By Andy Stockhausen, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

Gloucestershire paceman Zaman Akhter produced an incisive bowling performance to ask questions of Glamorgan on day three of the Rothesay County Championship Second Division match at Bristol's Seat Unique Stadium.

Colin Ingram top-scored with 103 and Chris Cooke contributed 56 in a rearguard action for the Welsh county, but Akhter's return of 5-85 from 20.5 overs and 3-61 from fellow quick Ajeet Singh Dale ensured Glamorgan were dismissed for 385, a first-innings deficit of 161.

With the possibility of a first red-ball win in Bristol since September 2022 before them, Gloucestershire enforced the follow-on, only to then be frustrated by openers Zain-ul-Hassan and Eddie Byron, who scored 51 not out and 47 not out respectively to usher Glamorgan to the close on 106 without loss. The visitors trail by 55 runs, their chances of saving the game on the final day vastly improved.

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Still 400 runs behind and needing a further 250 to avoid the follow on at the start of the day, Glamorgan were intent upon survival. But Gloucestershire's bowlers were afforded encouragement by partial cloud cover and Singh Dale was rewarded for bowling a fuller length when Kiran Carlson failed to move his feet, edged a routine catch to Cameron Bancroft at second slip and departed for 22 in the seventh over of the morning with the score on 169. Gloucestershire tails were up and Ingram was fortunate to survive on 33 when attempting to pull Taylor and seeing the ball drop just short of Graeme van Buuren at mid-on.

Change bowlers Akhter and Tom Price were unable to exert the same degree of pressure and, as conditions eased and the sun came out, so new batsman Ben Kellaway and Ingram began to find runs easier to come by. After an hour and 10 minutes, Gloucestershire skipper Bancroft had seen enough and called upon off spinner Ollie Price.

It came as something of a surprise, both to onlookers and the batsman himself, when Kellaway became stuck in his crease and was bowled by an Akhter yorker that knocked off stump out of the ground. Kellaway had made 22 and Glamorgan were perhaps feeling a little anxious as Cooke joined Ingram with the score on 205-5. Ingram responded by hoisting Ollie Price over long-on for six to raise an 86-ball 50 in the grand manner, after which the Welsh county secured a first batting bonus point. Glamorgan were 251-5 at lunch, Ingram unbeaten on 62 and Cooke 21 not out.

The new ball represented Gloucestershire's only realistic chance of forcing a result on a characteristically flat Bristol pitch, but Ingram and Cooke looked increasingly assured as they extended their alliance to three figures from 169 deliveries amid a flurry of boundaries. Ingram went to his hundred via 170 balls, reaching that landmark with his 13th four, a back-foot drive behind point off Singh Dale. Cooke reached a 99-ball 50 in the next over, driving Akhter through the covers for his eighth boundary.

Gloucestershire desperately needed a breakthrough and Akhter provided it, encouraging a ball to nip back at Cooke and hit off and middle. Cooke had made 56 and played his part in a hugely important stand of 129 for the sixth wicket with Ingram. When Singh Dale bowled Ingram on the back foot for 103 and Akhter had Timm van der Gugten held at first slip by Ollie Price for four, three wickets had fallen in 12 balls and Glamorgan were back under intense pressure at 337-8, still 60 runs short of avoiding the follow on.

The ninth wicket pair of Ned Leonard and Shoaib Bashir successfully negotiated eight overs as Glamorgan reached the sanctuary of the tea interval on 363-8, still 183 runs behind. Relying on pace following the resumption, Gloucestershire quickly terminated tail-end resistance, Akther clean bowling Leonard for 16 and then repeating the feat in his next over to remove Asitha Fernando for six, leaving Bashir high and dry on 22 not out.

Glamorgan made a better fist of batting second time around, openers Byron and Hassan demonstrating admirable concentration to defy tiring bowlers for 31 overs and greatly improve Welsh prospects of salvaging a draw on the final day. Hassan went to a patient 50 from 102 balls with 6 fours, while Byron finished just three runs short of the same landmark.

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