Tribe marathon boosts Glamorgan before Essex crumble

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (day two)

Glamorgan 505 (157.1 overs): Tribe 184, Carlson 107, Root 59; Akhter 5-107

Essex 100-7 (33.1 overs): Ul Hassan 3-14

Glamorgan 4 points, Essex 1 point

Match scorecard

England Lions opener Asa Tribe notched up his highest score of the season, compiling a patient 184 as Glamorgan piled up 505 before struggling Essex crashed to 100-7 in reply.

Tribe was at the wicket for a day and a half after being dropped on nought, showing fine temperament as well as technique.

Glamorgan were bidding farewell to three long-serving middle-order batters, Billy Root hitting 59 in a century stand with Tribe, while Colin Ingram made 43 and Chris Cooke 20.

Zaman Akhter plugged away for a five-wicket haul as Essex took six in the second session.

But the visitors' reply fell apart early on under scoreboard pressure as in-form medium-pacer Zain ul Hassan took 3-14.

Resuming on 318-3, Glamorgan crawled along against the newish ball, with Sam Cook particularly accurate, though Tribe was happy to accumulate gently in his second major score in successive innings after scoring 155 against Surrey.

Together with his England Lions runs, Tribe passed 1,000 in first-class cricket for the season as he tries to stay in the national reckoning.

They needed six off the 110th over to reach a third batting point, and the retiring Ingram pulled the first ball from Zaman Akhter for four, only to top-edge the next to fine leg, and Glamorgan were 349-4 at the end of it.

Root managed to push the rate along with a typically busy knock, his 59 off 88 balls including seven boundaries as he dominated the stand of 103 with Tribe.

But Essex managed to put the brakes on the scoring rate and then force breakthroughs as Root top-edged Simon Harmer to slip and Akhter had Tribe caught behind, the Jerseyman's marathon effort lasting 383 balls.

The third retiree, Cooke, was also given a guard of honour by the visitors, and belted a six and four off Harmer before falling to near-namesake Cook for 20.

But apart from some late blows from Dan Douthwaite (21), the end of the innings was an anti-climax as Cook and Akhter worked hard to limit the damage.

Essex got off to a dreadful start as South African veteran Dean Elgar, playing his final match, edged Timm van der Gugten to Cooke and Paul Walter was caught at slip by Ingram off Ray Toole for an 18-ball duck.

Tom Westley appeared to ease the pressure with a trio of successive boundaries off van der Gugten, but ul Hassan nipped one through the gate of Charlie Allison for 15.

He then trapped Westley lbw for 23 with a ball that kept low and skidded another delivery into Noah Thain's stumps.

Matt Critchley also took three fours off van der Gugten, but the Dutch international seamer struck back by having birthday boy George Bell leg-before for 12.

Matt Critchley (21) and Simon Harmer (26 not out) looked set to see the Eagles to the close, but Critchley was given lbw to Toole in the final over to complete a dismal session.

Despite Leicestershire's similar problems against title favourites Warwickshire in their final match, Essex could be left relying on the Foxes' points deduction for a poor pitch against Glamorgan to remain in the top flight.