Reece and Came stand firm for Derbyshire

Luis Reece and Harry Came provided stern resistance to put on an unbroken 95-run stand on Day Two of the LV= County Championship fixture against Glamorgan. 

Glamorgan racked up 521 for 8 declared, the county’s highest ever score at Derby, with wicketkeeper Chris Cooke plundering 70 from 51 balls.

But their bowlers also struggled on another placid Incora County Ground pitch as Luis Reece, 52, and Harry Came, 37, shared an unbroken opening stand of 95 in 40 overs before rain prevented any play after tea.

Only two wickets fell in two sessions with the pattern of the first day repeated in the morning as Cooke and the lower order punished some erratic bowling.

Cooke pulled Anuj Dal, who was fit to bowl after turning an ankle yesterday evening, for six on his way to a 40 ball fifty and took his team to maximum batting points by steering the medium-pacer to the third man boundary.

He drove off-spinner Alex Thomson for a second six over wide long on but three overs later he edged Dal to the only slip.

Andy Gorvin, who had helped Cooke add 65 from 81 balls for the seventh wicket, was caught behind trying to turn Sam Conners to leg but Glamorgan batted on for six more overs before the declaration came.

It had been another chastening spell in the field for Derbyshire with 113 runs coming from  22 overs and in total, 322 of Glamorgan’s runs had come in boundaries.

The home side was left with a potentially tricky eight overs to bat before lunch but the benign nature of the pitch meant there were few alarms for Reece and Came apart from a close run-out just before the interval.

Timm van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy did beat the bat after the break but there was little encouragement for the Glamorgan attack.

Their bowlers did at least keep it tight but Reece, who became the 19th Derbyshire player to score 6,000 runs and take 150 wickets in all cricket, completed his fifty from 111 balls as he and Came batted through the second session.

It was back-to-back fifties for Reece after his unbeaten 54 against Durham on Friday but his chances of converting it into a century were dashed when rain arrived during the tea interval with play called off for the day at 17.10.

Derbyshire all-rounder Luis Reece on batting with Harry Came said: “We get on really well so we’ve got that chemistry so to speak and it’s been nice that we’ve managed to put a performance together again.

“I think we’re both disappointed that we didn’t start the season off together but he’s done well since he’s come in and hopefully it’s a building block for things to come.

“We’re behind the eight ball, still over 400 behind which isn’t ideal when you win the toss and bowl but we’ve seen here that wickets have got turgid and hard to get 20 wickets and that’s what we’ve got to make sure happens in this game.

“We’ve got to make sure we bat extremely well and keep putting them under pressure and if you bat really well in the first innings you never what happens going into the last day.”

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