Kiran Carlson Proves That Red Or White Ball, He’s In Great Nick For Glamorgan


Glamorgan batsman Kiran Carlson proved at the weekend he is a man for all formats of cricket.

The Welsh county’s captain hit a superb 162 against Durham on the opening day of the County Championship Division Two match at Chester-le-Street.

His red ball form followed on from his white ball exploits in the Vitality Blast T20 tournament, where Carlson has been a consistent scorer.

Last Friday, he hit 40 against Essex in the T20 format. On Saturday, he made the 300-mile road trip to the North-East ground at the Riverside Stadium and made his fourth century of the season which made him the leading run-scorer in Division Two this season.

Carlson said: “I’m definitely happy with the way I’m batting. I’m in some good rhythm in the four-day stuff so happy to get that score on the board.

“I’m not sure if the aggressive approach was a conscious thing or a bit of T20 coming in, but I had my game-plan, defend straight and score square (of the wicket).

“Durham bowled well and hit their straps with the second new ball, there were a few unplayable balls there but me, Sam (Northeast) and Bill (Root) took the bulk of the batting on after Zain (Ul Hassan) and Salts (Andrew Salter) started us off well.

“It was a weird wicket out there, there were periods where it went flat and periods where we were under pressure.

“There’s definitely enough in there if you bowl in the right areas for long enough, there are enough balls to take 20 wickets.”

Glamorgan were 340 for four at one stage in their first innings, but slumped to to 390 all out, spurning a decent opportunity to bat the hosts out of the game.

While Carlson was laying a platform for Glamorgan, his Glamorgan clubmate, Marnus Labuschagne, warmed up for the Ashes series by helping Australia win the World Test Championship with a victory over India in the final at Lord’s.

Labuschagne – who spent the early weeks of the season playing for Glamorgan – hit 25 in Australia’s first innings and then 41 in the second as the Aussies won by 209 runs, thanks mainly to a 163 first innings knock by Travis Head.

Elsewhere, Wales’ double Olympic champion Jade Jones was back in form when she won gold at the Rome leg of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix at the weekend.

Jones beat Iranian world chanmpion Nahid Kiyanichandeh in the women’s -57kg final.