Glamorgan ended day one in the lead as 16 wickets fell against Worcestershire.
After winning the toss and putting the visitors into bat, Glamorgan found themselves with the momentum before long. After being 66-6 at Lunch, Worcestershire’s partnerships never got going as they fell to 109 all out.
Having bowled Worcestershire out before 3:00pm, Glamorgan reached 177-6 at the close of play on day one. Top run scorers of the day David Lloyd (48) and Marnus Labuschagne (42) were both given a second chance when they were dropped by Jack Haynes for 6 and 13 respectively.
On a day of seam-bowling dominance, Michael Neser continued his fine form from at Headingley last week with four wickets in a brilliant display of aggressive in-swing bowling. Accompanied with his now-regular new-ball partner in Timm van der Gugten, the Australian-born duo set up for James Harris to take four of his own.
Despite claiming four wickets, Harris’ fortune was in his favour for half of his wickets with Adam Hose dragging on and Joe Leach caught down the leg-side.
However, Harris’ fortune doesn’t represent his improvement since the opening weekend in April. During the early season, an erratic Harris struggled to keep his place in the team, of late with his spells in the early stages on day one, along with his spells against Yorkshire last week, his improvement has been clear.
Harry Finch impressed for Worcestershire on his return to the side, replacing the rested Ben Gibbon who has been a starlet for the Pears this season so far.
Picking up the wickets of the Glamorgan middle-order, Finch was Worcestershire’s pick of the wicket takers on the opening day at Sophia Gardens; accompanied by some good spells from Leach and a strong second spell from Matthew Waite after dismissing Labuschagne earlier in the day.
As the pitch looked to flatten out as it consistently has at Sophia Gardens so far this season, the match is by no means ruled out by the 62-run deficit suffered by the visitors.
