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Chris Cooke's maiden double-hundred leads Glamorgan to mammoth total

Chris Cooke celebrates his century Getty Images

Surrey 45 for 0 trail Glamorgan 672 for 6 declared (C Cooke 205*, Carlson 69, Douthwaite 59) by 627 runs

Chris Cooke led from the front with a relentless captain's innings of 205 not out as Glamorgan spent day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship second division match against Surrey constructing a mammoth total of 672 for 6 declared, the home side responding with 45 for no wicket in the final hour.

It was the first double-hundred of 35-year-old Cooke's 12-year first-class career, beating a previous best of 171 scored seven years ago, and also the highest individual innings by a Glamorgan wicketkeeper, eclipsing Eifion Jones' unbeaten 146 against Sussex at Hove in 1968.

Cooke was joined by Dan Douthwaite in a 51-over sixth wicket stand of 189, and that followed a slightly more urgent partnership of 140 in 37 overs with Kiran Carlson, who was on 45 overnight and reached 69 before being quite brilliantly caught by a diving Dan Moriarty at square leg as he swept hard at Will Jacks' offbreak.

Douthwaite was eventually caught at long-on by Jacks soon after tea, for a curiously restrained 146-ball 59 that contained only two fours, giving offspinner Amar Virdi a hard-won third wicket.

On a soporific surface showing little sign of predicted turn, Glamorgan resumed on 379 for 4 and accumulated ruthlessly, if perhaps over-cautiously, in warm sunshine before declaring at what is the third highest first-class total in the Welsh county's history. The highest remains 718 for 3 declared, against Sussex at Colwyn Bay in 2000, while their highest score against Surrey is still the 702 for 8 declared made at the Oval in 2009.

The declaration, greeted by some ironic cheers, left Surrey 15 overs to bat before stumps, and openers Jamie Smith and Ryan Patel reached 23 and 22 not out respectively, although Smith could have been stumped on 13 in offspinner Andrew Salter's first over if Cooke had gathered the ball cleanly behind the stumps.

Cooke, who began the day on 44, batted for five minutes short of six hours, facing 299 balls and hitting a six and 18 fours. Five of his previous six Championship innings were single-figure scores but - strong particularly through square cover - Cooke looked largely untroubled throughout and closed Glamorgan's 177-over batting marathon five minutes after he reached his double-century by slicing slow left-armer Moriarty just over mid-off for two, attempting on 199 to go past 200 in the grand manner.

It was his eighth first-class score of 100 or more and, as Surrey manfully and quite successfully kept as tight a control as they could on Glamorgan's scoring rate, Cooke added an unbeaten 54 for the seventh wicket with Callum Taylor, who swept Jacks for six and also in the same over cover drove and cut him for fours in a breezy 57-ball 38 not out.

Glamorgan scored 87 in 34 overs before lunch, hitting just two boundaries in a turgid opening session, and then 145 in 32 overs between lunch and tea. It was unspectacular stuff though overall, especially given a flat pitch and summer-like conditions, but Cooke will argue the ends justify the means if Glamorgan can put Surrey under scoreboard pressure during the last two days of this second division match.

Surrey 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st140RS PatelJL Smith
2nd107HM AmlaJL Smith
3rd362HM AmlaOJ Pope
4th68BT FoakesOJ Pope
5th45R ClarkeBT Foakes

County Championship

Division 1
TeamMWLDPT
NOTTS431068
LANCS421157
WARKS421156
HANTS421153
YORKS412140
SOM404014
Division 2
TeamMWLDPT
ESSEX430177
GLOUC431064
DURH311140
NHNTS412138
SUR301227
GLAM403123
Division 3
TeamMWLDPT
KENT440083
MIDDX431067
WORCS422049
LEICS412143
DERBS412142
SUSS404018
Group 1
TeamMWLDPT
NOTTS10424151
WARKS10415145
DURH10325132
ESSEX10325129
WORCS10136109
DERBS1005572
Group 2
TeamMWLDPT
SOM10415148
HANTS10424145
GLOUC10532131
SUR10226123
LEICS10244111
MIDDX1027184
Group 3
TeamMWLDPT
LANCS10415150
YORKS10514149
GLAM10226127
NHNTS10334123
KENT1003797
SUSS1015494