Glamorgan and Lancashire forced to accept draw as rain spoils thriller

Glamorgan's enthralling CricInfo Championship clash with Lancashire at Colwyn Bay was eventually abandoned as a draw with eight overs of the final day left.

After the Welsh county had set 298 to win off what turned out to be 49 overs Lancashire were teetering on 225-7 when heavy rain forced the players the field at 5.30.

Both teams had wanted a win to ease their relegation worries but Glamorgan and Lancashire had to settle for 12 and 11 points respectively.

Glamorgan made immediate inroads into Lancashire's second innings when Simon Jones bowled Ryan Driver in the fourth over.

And that was followed by the wicket of John Crawley who was bowled giving the slow left-armer the charge to leave Lancashire 23-2 in the 10th over.

But then Mark Chilton and Andrew Flintoff set up what looked like a victory charge, putting on 111 in 18 overs. Flintoff registered his first championship 50 of the season in just 44 balls with one six and 10 fours.

Glamorgan started to look a little worried in the field as the third wicket pair dismantled their attack until Simon Jones returned to bowl Flintoff.

After that as Lancashire continued the pursuit for victory they lost wickets at regular intervals as the skies in north Wales darkened.

Chilton miscued Adrian Dale to backward point and Keith Newell took catches off consecutive balls on the boundary to dismiss both Joe Scuderi and Warren Hegg to end Lancashire's victory bid.

Earlier Glamorgan recovered in their second innings to set Lancashire the testing target.

But when rain forced an early lunch to be taken Glamorgan were still favourites for defeat at 148-7 - a lead of 225 - after resuming their second innings on 86-5 this morning.

An 85-run partnership after the interval from Keith Newell and Darren Thomas however enabled Glamorgan captain Adrian Dale to declare on 220-7.