Powell complements Maynard's power as Glamorgan edge towards title

Glamorgan 280-8 Worcestershire 177 Glamorgan win by 103 runs

It had been nip and tuck for the last month or so between Worcestershire and Glamorgan ­ both of whom won promotion last season ­ but finally last night the Welsh side pulled away by a length or so in the leadership race with a comprehensive victory.

One more win will do it, and it would be apposite if Glamorgan recorded that in their penultimate league match in 11 days' time against Kent at Canterbury ­ the scene of their only other triumph in this competition back in 1993.

This match had been regarded by many as being the pivotal game and potential championship decider and Glamorgan's free-hitting batsman Matthew Maynard was clearly of that persuasion to judge by the fashion in which he thumped his way to 87, his best this season in the competition.

It was an innings which underlined Maynard's superb timing and immense power. On no fewer than 11 occasions he found the boundary and on a further occasion he lofted a big six off Gareth Batty, in the off-spinner's opening over.

Maynard shared in an exhilarating 133-run stand with his third-wicket partner Michael Powell, the pair of them fairly rattling along at exactly seven an over. Sadly Powell contrived to run himself out, a needless loss, especially since he had been looking as dangerous as Maynard as he hammered his way past his first half-century of the summer in this league.

He was still in long enough (81 balls and 71 runs) to treat a near sell-out crowd at Sophia Gardens to some entertaining batting, which included 10 well struck fours. Despite the overcast conditions the Worcestershire bowlers were made to look distinctly hittable and by the time Maynard and co had finished with them they were left with a pretty ragged set of figures.

In contrast the Glamorgan opening bowlers, most notably Mike Kasprowicz and Andrew Davies, proved miserly, while the spinners Robert Croft and Dean Cosker claimed the last four Worcestershire wickets in five balls. Croft took two wickets and two catches as well as having a hand in both Worcestershire run-outs.

David Leatherdale proved the most dogged and uninhibited of the visitors, smacking a couple of sixes and a fistful of fours in his 41-ball fifty (his first of the season in the league), but it was a lost cause by then.