Glamorgan hold nerve to win relegation dogfight

Glamorgan beat Surrey by three wickets in a CricInfo Championship Division One relegation nail-biter at The Oval today.

Seemingly coasting at 163-3, chasing 200 for victory, Martin Bicknell (5-48 and 11-117 in the match, the fourth time he has taken 10 wickets in a game) took four wickets in seven balls before 19-year-old Mark Wallace saw the Welshmen home safely after tea.

Surrey had lost their last three wickets for 12-runs in 47-balls in the morning, failing to set the 240 target that Surrey captain Bicknell had been looking for.

Steve Watkin (4-28) and Simon Jones (3-36) returned season's best figures, giving Glamorgan two and-a-half sessions to score 200. At lunch on 62-2 the match was evenly poised, with both Jimmy Maher and Matthew Maynard gone.

However, a 70 ball, first 50 of the season, from opener Ian Thomas and a composed 51 from Mike Powell left Glamorgan just 37-runs from victory when Bicknell began a third spell.

Smarting from the belief that he has "no chance" of an England recall after eight years in the international wilderness, Bicknell found pace and bounce in a four-wicket burst immediately prior to tea. Adrian Dale (15), Robert Croft (a second pair in three games), Powell and Darren Thomas were dismissed in his devastating spell.

Dale and Powell edged seaming deliveries - both caught by 'keeper Alec Stewart. Croft was lbw half-forward and Thomas fended a bouncer to Ben Hollioake, who caught a good one in the gully.

But after tea former England U19 'keeper, Wallace, calmly saw his side home to a second CricInfo Championship win of the season.

This leaves them just 12 points behind Surrey in the relegation dogfight.

Meanwhile, Surrey all-rounder Gary Butcher's county future is unclear as he is finding being dropped to accommodate returning Test players "hard to take."