Richard Levi’s resurgent form and determined resistance was not enough to prevent Gloucestershire taking a nine-wicket win over Northamptonshire in the English County Championship.
He scored a valiant 64 off 78 balls before being last man out, with only his compatriot Rory Kleinveldt giving him any meaningful support. Kleinveldt had adopted the ‘attack to defend’ philosophy, hammering five fours and two sixes in scoring 37 off 39 balls.
Levi had been on the back foot from the start. Northants began their second innings 125 runs behind and lost three wickets for five runs before he arrived to stop the rot. Nevertheless, it was his fourth fifty, to go with his highest first-class score of 168, in four matches after dropping down to No 5, relinquishng his barren opening spot.
Earlier, Kleinveldt had taken four wickets, but expensively at 5.19 an over. It was he who finally got No 8 batsman Jack Taylor, whose 156 off 125 balls ultimately turned the game.
Jacques Rudolph‘s Glamorgan were denied a new page of history when they were held to a draw by Derbyshire ina severely rain-affected match.
There were going for a record five wins in a row and made every effort, enforcing the follow-on when Derbyshire fell 158 short on the first innings.
But Wayne Madsen, nephew of provincial stalwarts Trevor Madsen and Henry Fotheringham, contributed an unbeaten 79 off 143 balls, sharing a third-wicket stand of 132 with Hamish Rutherford (108) to make the game safe. Madsen reached 6 000 championship runs when he got to 32.
Glamorgan, though, severely hampered by the elements at the start of the season, are still unbeaten with four wins and five draws from their nine matches. They stay in third place on 141 points behind Lancashire (11 matches, 191 pts) and Surrey (10, 161).
Lancashire were also held to a draw, by Essex, after almost two days were lost to rain.
In the Caribbean, Jacques Kallis top-scored with 46 off 36 balls, but received little by way of support from his Trinidad and Tobago team-mates as Jamaica Tallawahs, led by Chris Gayle’s 105, won by 50 runs. Cameron Delport was unable to get going and Johan Botha added 13 to the Steelers’ total of 130-9.
Compiled by Mark Salter
