Thomson claims four wickets as Glamorgan declare on Day Three

Alex Thomson was the pick of the bowlers on Day Three, as Derbyshire have the upper hand heading into the final day of the season.

Glamorgan skipper Kiran Carlson decided to dangle a carrot in front of Derbyshire in a bid to engineer a result in the final game of the season by declaring at 301-5 to give the visitors a 149 first innings lead at Sophia Gardens.

As soon as the follow on had been averted Carlson called his batters back into the pavilion, even though they looked well capable of getting close to the 450 first innings total posted by Derbyshire. Three of their top five batsmen toped 50 runs, but with time running out, and bad light inevitably affecting the latter stages, Carlson declared at 4.10pm when Billy Root was dismissed.

That gave Derbyshire 25 tricky overs to face in failing light in the Welsh capital. After opening with their pace attack, Glamorgan were forced to turn to their spinners before the umpires finally had enough with five overs left to play.

At that stage Derbyshire were 68-0, stretching their lead in the game to 217 runs. Harry Came was unbeaten on 28 and Luis Reece was just ahead on 33 – chasing a club record seventh innings of 50 or more .

Starting Day 3 with a 428 run deficit, but a full deck of batters, Glamorgan made steady progress but lost both openers before lunch. Eddie Byrom (11) was first to go, caught in the gulley by Anuj Dal off Zak Chappell with the score on 45.

The free-flowing Zain Ul-Hassan succumbed just before lunch when he became the first of Alex Thomson’s four victims. Back at the same Sophia Gardens venue at which he made his first-class debut as captain of the Cardiff MCC University team in 2014, the Derbyshire spinner was the most prolific bowler used by the visitors and ended with figures of 4-97 to notch his third four wicket haul of the month.

Ul-Hassan managed nine fours and a six in his 65 and he steered the Welsh country through the century mark and on to 130 before he departed. Colin Ingram had joined him and wafted at his first two balls and missed.

He eventually got into full flow after lunch as he notched 82 off 95 balls, including 15 boundaries, before he also fell to Thomson. He put on 85 with Ul-Hassan and then 61 with Carlson for the third wicket.

That left Glamorgan at 130-2 in their pursuit of Derbyshire’s 450 first innings total. Carlson helped himself to 36 before he was bowled by Thomson’s off spin. Billy Root and Chris Cooke then sped things up as they put on 64 for the fifth wicket before Root was stumped off Thomson.