Date-stamped : 24 Aug97 - 03:08 Curran hits best to delay Glamorgan`s push for top By Edward Bevan at Abergavenny First day of four: Northants 302-8 v Glamorgan THIRD-placed Glamorgan, who are 16 points behind championship leaders Gloucestershire with this game in hand, were held up by Kevin Curran, who scored a career-best 159 not out at the Avenue Road Ground yesterday. Although his colleagues failed to take advantage of a flat pitch and small boundaries, Curran - apart from one difficult chance - was never in any trouble against an attack that toiled in the extreme heat. The day began eventfully with Hugh Morris withdrawing from the Glamorgan team after turning his ankle in a game of touch rug- by and the home side summoning Alun Evans and Dean Cosker from a sec- ond eleven game against Middlesex at Lensbury. The players then left the field after two overs when the open- ing bowlers noticed the pitch was slightly out of alignment, and England discard Robert Croft held a press conference in a tent outside the pavilion. After consulting the ground staff, the umpires ordered the stumps to be realigned - apparently there was a four-inch skew - and the creases re-marked before deciding to add 27 minutes at the end of the day. "We had noticed the wickets weren`t aligned, but we decided to start," said Graham Burgess, one of the umpires. "We then asked the captains what they thought and after two overs we de- cided to do some- thing about it. However, there will be no repercussions." When play restarted Russell Warren flicked Steve Watkin down the leg side before David Roberts departed leg before to a ball that nipped back. Northants were 51 for three when Alan Fordham sliced Darren Thomas to slip, but Curran counter-attacked effectively while Rob Bailey denied himself any liberties at the other end. Curran struck Thomas for four successive boundaries and drove Croft for six over extra cover to reach a rapid half-century from only 43 balls. The fourth-wicket pair added 72 before Bailey, frus- trated at not scoring a run for 45 minutes, drove Croft to mid on. David Sales then shared a useful partnership of 53 with Cur- ran, who was reprieved on 84 when Croft, at slip, failed to hold on to a sharp chance. Sales disturbed a ladies` bowls competition when he pulled Waqar Younis for six into an adjoining green, but was caught at sec- ond slip in the Pakistani`s next over. Curran reached his second championship hundred of the season from 113 balls, which included two sixes and 13 fours. David Ripley lasted only four balls before edging Waqar to the wicket- keeper, but Paul Taylor stayed with Curran for 27 overs be- fore providing Adrian Shaw with another catch. Robert Croft is considering an appeal after being handed a sus- pended two-match ban by the ECB disciplinary panel on Tuesday for his NatWest semi-final fracas. "I thought the penalty set by Glamorgan might have been the end of the matter," he said. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) James keeps up flow in vintage campaign By Charles Randall at Abergavenny Second day of four: Glamorgan (232-3) trail Northants (330) by 98 runs STEVE JAMES knows the only way to achieve recognition for Eng- land`s Test team is to bore the selectors to death with re- ports of his vintage season at Glamorgan. His 103 in the gloom at Avenue Road yesterday was excellent. . .again. This was the opener`s sixth championship hundred, and his re- sounding innings raised his summer`s first-class total to 1,553 runs, way ahead of any other Englishman. Mike Atherton was a team-mate at Cambridge University before James had evolved a technique and attitude cut out for the pro- fessional game. England`s captain would not believe the differ- ence had he man- aged to play against him in a championship match during the past two seasons. The only reservation about yesterday`s showing was Northamp- tonshire`s bowling, which lacked penetration, with two youth- ful spin bowlers playing their second championship matches. James`s passage to his 138-ball hundred looked easy, the main threat being a run-out. Adrian Dale guided the ball around this fast- scoring ground for a fifty in 87 balls, one quicker than James. Their partnership gives Glamorgan an ideal platform for an assault today. James, a quick runner between the wickets, eventually tried one tight single too many and was run out by wicketkeeper David Ripley`s direct hit at the bowler`s end. Glamorgan badly needed a resounding reply in the two sessions allowed by drizzle. Dale was caught, bat-pad, in the day`s final over for 71, his job not quite accomplished. Glamorgan dislodged Northamptonshire`s remaining two wickets in the morning, their job assisted by the departure of Kevin Cur- ran without adding to his overnight 159. Curran aimed an impatient swipe at Robert Croft and was bowled off the first ball of the day`s fourth over after three maidens. Michael Davies struck three boundaries, including a delicious straight drive off Croft, the ball penetrating the in-field in slow mo- tion before trundling down the hill for four. Northamptonshire`s final score of 330, at a fraction over three runs an over, looks about 70 below par. If Davies could touch them for four, James and company certainly would. James and Alun Evans started steadily in gloomy light and must have been grateful for some wild, fast bowling from Mohammad Akram, who laboured up the slope with one of the longest and most un- threatening run-ups on the circuit. Curran slowed Glamorgan`s tempo with accurate medium-pacers which forced the batsmen to put pace on the ball. Even James found the contest awkward on a slow, heavily shaved pitch. James began to fret and just before a long break for rain in the afternoon he almost perished attempting a dangerous single off Curran when he had reached 39. Akram`s second spell was more demanding, with James three times flashing shots over or past the slips to the short straight boundary. No danger here, but moral victories for the bowler. Evans, a batsman for whom Glamorgan have high hopes, looked solid enough until he cut a low catch off Davies to short third man. Dale settled in quickly and Glamorgan`s overall momentum rose towards four runs an over, the minimum rate needed if they hoped to control the game. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Sales pitches in for Northants By Charles Randall at Abergavenny Third day of four: Northamptonshire (330 & 146-5) lead Glamor- gan (354-6 dec)by 122 runs GLAMORGAN produced some inspired cricket yesterday but they were stopped in their tracks by David Sales just when they scented the victory that could take them back to the top of the champi- onship table. Three wickets in eight balls by Waqar Younis reduced Northampton- shire`s second innings to a shell before Sales took responsibili- ty, using his power effectively on this sound but awkward shaved pitch to reach 56 not out. Sales had been released from England Under-19`s four-day game against Zimbabwe back at Northampton, and his county club would have been extremely glad of his presence in Wales for the most pragmatic of reasons. Dour defence would have guaranteed slow strangulation and probable defeat yesterday, even with 22 overs lost to rain. Glamorgan`s seemingly unstoppable advance had begun to falter when Matthew Maynard dislocated his right index finger in the slips and had to leave the field. The injury was caused by a difficult catching chance, though Alan Fordham, the escapee, was soon caught at deep midwicket by Alun Evans. In the morning Maynard, the new player-coach with Otago in New Zealand next winter, declared 24 runs ahead after some exhila- rating batting, his 58 in 64 balls the epitome of controlled ag- gression. Northamptonshire needed to improve on their diffident first innings - Kevin Curran excepted - but the batting imploded startlingly, and if David Ripley had not been dropped behind the wicket they would have been 69 for six, only 45 ahead. Waqar struck soon after lunch when he had Russell Warren and Rob Bailey snicking tamely, followed by Curran five balls lat- er, slicing a drive to short third man, who had been placed there for that purpose. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Glamorgan fired up By Charles Randall at Abergavenny Glamorgan (354-6dec 197-4) beat Northamptonshire (330 & 219) by 6 wkts SO MUCH about visiting Abergavenny is close to perfection - six surrounding woody topped hills, the town`s red telephone box- es and the striking cricket ground at Avenue Road - that 200 in a match by Steve James can almost be taken for granted. James`s seventh championship century of the season, his third in a row, secured victory for Glamorgan by six wickets more easily than his side could have dared expect earlier in the day. They had to scratch out five Northamptonshire wickets in the morning before leaving themselves 196 to win with two batsmen in- capac- itated. It could have all gone wrong on a bad day, or a non-James day, which have been few and far between. Waqar Younis, captain in Matthew Maynard`s absence, eased some taut Welsh nerves by slicing through the Northants tail for a re- turn of six wickets for 56. His success ended a knife-edge phase, because David Sales, with his first hundred of the sea- son, was beginning to push Glamorgan towards desperation. The howls of frustration and frequent appealing grew more in- tense as Sales and David Ripley added 46 runs to their overnight part- nership with sensible, effective batting. Their sixth-wicket stand had risen to 131 when Ripley was de- ceived and dismissed for 58 by Robert Croft, which opened the hutch for Waqar`s thunderbolt. Sales, with a wide stroke range, took risks to score, as he had to, and survived some close calls and a couple of dif- ficult chances, but his power and judgment suggested that his England Under-19 status would be a sure stepping-stone to higher things. Sales raced through his second fifty in only 32 balls. He de- posited Waqar into a walled garden for six wide of long-on to reach 99, then cantered an easy single for his hundred next ball. England status, or absence of it, has become a vexed question in Wales, because Steve James continued to give notice to the na- tional selectors. When he cover-drove Michael Davies for four to reach his fifty, it was the 15th time he had passed the mark in 22 first-class innings, seven of which he has converted into hundreds. The man from Lydney, happy to be known as an adopted Welshman, has developed his percentage game to a supreme level. Anything fancy has been cut out, though he puts away most bad balls. His extra-cover driving, especially, has become de- structive and he must be the best off-side player on the circuit. Crisp, clever, confident - that sums him up. Yesterday Northamptonshire`s attack bore no resemblance to the tame affair on Thursday, with Mohammad Akram almost emulat- ing Waqar, his fellow Pakistani, for fire from the Pen-y-Pound end. However, he did not break through, and it was Jason Brown, an off-spinner, who took the first wicket with his second ball when Adrian Shaw was snaffled at silly mid-off. Shaw was deputis- ing for Alun Evans, who dropped down the order after injuring his back during warm-up fielding. Brown followed this by bowling Adrian Dale on the forward prod with a no-ball. Cricket looked a simple game with James at the crease. The juicy pork steak rolls, the Derri hill overlooking the pavilion and Glam- organ`s England prospect at the crease - that was per- fection at Aber- gavenny. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)