Glamorgan and Steve James enjoy run feast at Chelmsford

Glamorgan and their captain Steve James had a record breaking day on the second day of their Championship match against Essex at Chelmsford.

James compiled a magnificent 235* as his team raced to 505-6 to gain an overall lead of 274 over a lacklustre Essex side, who in the course of the day were hit by injuries to wicket-keeper James Foster and batsman Aftab Habib.

James recorded the sixth double century of his career and his 235* is the highest ever score by a Glamorgan batsman against Essex, beating Jimmy Maher`s 217 at Cardiff last year.

On the first day, Essex had struggled under a heavy cloud cover against the accurate Glamorgan attack, but in sunny and cloudless conditions, the Glamorgan batsmen, led by skipper James, feasted on the home attack. During the afternoon session, James, together with Mike Powell and Matthew Maynard, added 217 in just 38 overs between lunch and tea as the Glamorgan batsmen cut loose.

By the end of the day, Glamorgan had scored 499 runs in the 104 overs - the most they had ever scored in a day`s play in Championship cricket, passing their previous best of 493 against Worcestershire at Abergavenny in 1990.

However, there could be even more records to come and there is every prospect of James carrying on batting on Friday morning and beating his own record of 309* for the highest ever individual score by a Glamorgan player, set against Sussex at Colwyn Bay in 2000.

"I would be very delighted if I went past my own 309", James said after Thursday`s play, "and it would be a monumental effort if I did that. But tomorrow I could get out first ball and that would be that. Hopefully, though I can play myself in first thing, and maybe by lunch, I could be near that landmark."