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, another 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.

Glamorgan batter Asa Tribe told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's about assessing every ball, this year I felt I haven't had those big innings already so I was very hungry for runs, when I got the opportunity to get in I was very keen to stay there.

"I'm glad I was able to get the middle time I was after in these last couple of games. Maybe a bit more patience, a bit of a change in mind-set but nothing technical.

"It's the last time we're going to get to play with these guys (Ingram, Root and Cooke), it's bitter-sweet in that sense but I'm glad they got a send-off.

"The way the bowlers got going straight away, we were right on the money, everyone was spot on. There's that mental barrier (for Essex) knowing they're a long way off with 13 wickets left.

"I hope I've scored the runs at the right time for England selection and people remember the most recent stuff, hopefully when they do make selections for squads I'm in with a shout."

Essex seamer Zaman Akhter said:

"Obviously it's not an ideal back end of the day after fielding for (close to) 160 overs.

"It felt like the pitch wasn't offering too much so to get (six) wickets in the middle (session), we were confident coming into bat but it didn't go our way.

"Me and Simon Harmer will start us off tomorrow, we've got three partnerships (to come) so we'll see where we are at the end of them.

"This time of year, being a small squad and Ports (Jamie Porter) going down at the start of this one, the lads stuck at it well with good energy on a placid pitch which is a positive, I guess."