Glamorgan edge past Somerset in historic home win

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

Somerset 354: Abell 86; Norton 3-75 & 157: Abell 71; Norton 4-61, van der Gugten 3-25, Hadley 3-28

Glamorgan 205: Kellaway 59; Pretorius 3-50 & 285-8: Dickson 76, Tribe 52, Hadley 50*; Pretorius 4-74, Overton 3-60

Glamorgan (19 pts) beat Somerset (6 pts) by 2 wickets

Match scorecard

Glamorgan battled their way to a historic first ever home triumph in Division One as they pulled off an unlikely two-wicket win over Somerset.

Their heroes were Sean Dickson, who hit 76 against the county who let him go last season, and nightwatchman Ryan Hadley, who made 50 not out and faced more balls in the match than in his previous 19 first-class games.

It was an agonising run-chase at times as Somerset's impressive quartet of seamers made Glamorgan fight for everything, with Craig Overton (3-60) bowling superbly on the final day.

The result, after an absorbing game, marks Glamorgan's second successive win and Somerset's second loss.

Glamorgan had previously won only four matches in the top flight, all away from home.

The match will be remembered for Tom Norton's hat-trick on debut for Glamorgan, the youngest player on record to do so in first-class cricket, which brought his side back into the game after conceding a lead of 125 on first innings.

Resuming on 140-5, Glamorgan's overnight pair of night-watchman Hadley and former Somerset player Dickson ground along slowly, playing and missing fairly regularly as many had done before them over the course of the game.

The pace quartet of Lewis Gregory, Jake Ball, Migael Pretorius and Craig Overton kept the pressure on as they reeled off the maidens, and on one occasion Somerset thought they had won an lbw verdict from umpire Paul Pollard, only for the official to adjust his hat instead.

Hadley, a man who arrived in Wales with a first-class batting average under four, hung on with a mixture of good judgement and good fortune under the new floodlights, now allowed for Championship action for the first time on the ground.

Meanwhile Dickson defied his former team-mates stoically until the arrival of the new ball, which saw him crash two fours off a Gregory over and three boundaries from Overton to take his side to 202-5 at lunch.

Dickson reached a cagey 50 off 99 balls, but was dropped at slip off Ball shortly afterwards as he and Hadley eked out the runs.

The stand was worth 114 by the time Overton won an lbw shout against the redoubtable Dickson, who had faced 154 balls and struck 10 fours.

Chris Cooke survived an impassioned appeal in the same over, but not another shout from Pretorius shortly afterwards with 28 runs still needed as Somerset revived their fading hopes.

Hadley hooked a mighty maximum over deep square-leg, only the second of his first-class career, before tensions rose as a caught-behind appeal was rejected.

Glamorgan reduced the target to 14 by tea, but Overton removed Timm van der Gugten for six to prolong the drama.

A crunching straight-drive from Hadley got them within a shot of victory, but he faced another ferocious lbw appeal from Pretorius before Hadley reached a hugely unlikely 50 with the winning boundary off the 231st delivery he faced.

Glamorgan, fifth in the table after five games, travel to Warwickshire and Somerset (sixth) host Sussex in the next round starting on Friday, 15 May.

Glamorgan's Ryan Hadley told BBC Sport Wales:

"It happened in blocks, this morning I came in just hoping to chip away a few to help a few, Dicko started really nicely and I don't really know what happened from there!

"I played and missed a lot, but I just kept rolling, I looked up and we needed 50 then I just counted down in tens, though I was pretty nervy when we lost the eighth wicket.

"I scratched a few round the corner then hit a nice one to win it.

"I haven't been dismissed since coming over here, it's a bit of a joke with the boys, I thought it was inevitable I'd get out today but it's a miracle!"

Glamorgan batter Sean Dickson added:

"A great result, it all boiled down to day two when Norts (Tom Norton) was outstanding on debut, we're very grateful and what a debut it's been.

"I don't think it changed anything much (playing against his former side), I had the bit between my teeth and it was nice to put in a performance like that against my former club.

"But it was a game we needed to win, it needed one or two big partnerships so luckily enough Hadders and myself were able to grit it out, and we got there."

Glamorgan coach Richard Dawson said:

"A long two sessions to get to where we wanted, the patience shown by Ryan and Sean all the way through the partnership was really good.

"We played well against Hampshire last week and came into this game with confidence. There was a bit of a change giving Tom his debut and it was amazing to see how he performed.

"Both teams had their time in front in the game, but we hung in."

Somerset coach Jason Kerr said:

"It hurts a lot. It's incredibly frustrating, there's a huge amount of emotion. It was an incredible four days cricket but when you have the opportunity on day one to put yourself in a strong position to then be 32 for 6, well to put 280 on the board for the chase.

"The new ball did more but 1000 runs and 38 wickets, loads of play and misses across the four days, it could've panned out very different.

"It's an incredibly difficult job umpires do but there were some decisions that influenced the game and I can say that for both sides, but that's incredibly frustrating. The reality is, we had opportunities we didn't take."