Aneurin Donald hits double hundred as Glamorgan post big first day total against Derbyshire

A superb maiden championship century, subsequently converted into a double hundred by 19 year-old Aneurin Donald was the highlight of the first day's play at a sun kissed Rhos on Sea ground, which enabled Glamorgan to score 481 for 8 in their first innings and gain full batting points.Although he was dropped twice early in his innings, Donald went to devour the Derbyshire attack,in an innings that include15 sixes and26 fours from only 136 balls. He reached fifty in 38 balls, 97 balls fewer than Will Bragg, who made 60 and put on 115 with Donald for fourth wicket. His next fifty came from 42 balls, and the third from 24, the young Glamorgan Academy protÃ©gÃ© reaching 100 and 150 with towering sixes over midwicket and also scoring separate hundreds in two sessions

After electing to bat first on a pitch that encouraged the seamers early on - Derbyshire didn’t help themselves by dropping 5 catches-, Glamorgan lost Mark Wallace in Tony Palladino’s first over before Nick Selman and Bragg put on 88 for the second wicket before Selman and Jacques Rudolph departed in quick succession.

Donald did not appear until 2.10 but was soon into his stride, reaching fifty from 97 fewer balls than Bragg, and was particulary severe on the young leg spinner Matt Critchley who was struck for 24 in one over..Donald then went from 100 to 200 in only 43 balls, and true to fashion reached his double century with another six, albeit a top edge over third man.By the time Donald had struck his 15th and final six, a passing car had been dented on the road outside the ground as had five others in the members enclosure. He was finally dismissed, caught at long off, this after Derbyshire had posted nine fielders on the boundary after two overs of the second new ball had been taken, and the same over that Glamorgan reached their fifth and final bowling point. To their credit, every Derbyshire player rushed took his to congratulate Donald as he left the field, and as he became the youngest double centurion in the club’s history- five years younger than the previous incumbent John Hopkins.Another milestone reached by Donald was to equal the previous fastest double century in the history of first class cricket, scored by Ravi Shastri at Bombay in 1985.

Three other batsmen scored fifties, Will Davies the young Derbyshire seamer took his first five wicket haul, but the day belonged to Donald on the North Wales coast. He said afterwards that” I was pleased because it has put the team in a strong position, and after a lean patch recently, delighted to get a big one. I had no idea of the records that went, but it was especially pleasing to equal Ravi Shastri’s previous record, as he is a former Glamorgan player”. Asked about reaching three landmarks with sixes, he admitted “ yes it was in the mind!”