Glamorgan had the better of day one in Cardiff ending the day on 114/2, trailing Leicestershire by 137. After the loss of two early wickets Colin Ingram and Kiran Carlson had taken control and put on an unbeaten 87 run partnership off 99 balls. Ingram ended not out on 63 and Carlson 42. Earlier Leicestershire had been dismissed for an under par score of 251.
Fairer weather greeted the players than they endured last week and despite some early morning drizzle, play got underway on time. They were using a hybrid pitch for the first time in a men’s game at Sophia Gardens and with a green tinge, Sam Northeast, the Glamorgan captain, had no hesitation in wanting to get first use of the Kookaburra ball. Glamorgan’s Asa Tribe came in for a Championship debut, while Leicestershire replaced Ben Green, who has returned to Somerset in preparation for their Blast quarter final, and Josh Hull with Chris Wright and Sam Wood, also making his first Championship appearance.
Timm van der Gugten has been the standout bowler for Glamorgan this season and he delivered again, first bowling Rishi Patel (7) with a ball that clipped the top of off stump and then Ian Holland (13) went in the same fashion. This left Leicestershire on 27/2, but as so often this season, the other Glamorgan seamers have been unable to maintain the pressure and Ajinkya Rahane and Lewis Hill put together a 60 run partnership before the return of van der Gugten brought the third wicket, trapping Hill lbw for 25. At lunch the score had moved on to 96/3 with the two big guns of the Leicestershire batting line up at the crease, Rahane on 38 and Peter Handscomb, 9. Glamorgan had had the opportunity to remove Rahane on 16 when he pulled Ned Leonard to deep midwicket only for Dan Douthwaite to spill the chance diving forward.
Leicestershire then lost their way after lunch, gifting wickets against rather inconsistent bowling. Van der Gugten remained on the mark and Nelson struck as Rahane (42) was adjudged lbw to give the Dutch international his fourth wicket to leave the total on 111/4. Rehan Ahmed and Handscomb moved the score uneventfully to 154 before Ahmed (15) lofted a long hop from Douthwaite to Billy Root on the deep midwicket boundary. Handscomb then played a loose shot off Douthwaite, guiding the ball into the gloves of Chris Cooke for 46, to put Leicestershire on the ropes at 163/6. Fraser Sheat picked up his first Glamorgan wicket when Liam Trevaskis (5) lobbed a gentle catch to Douthwaite at mid on and three wickets had fallen for the addition of just 14 runs. The Foxes batters continued to gift the Glamorgan bowlers wickets as Louis Kimber (17) struck a leg side half volley to Tribe at short mid wicket to give Douthwaite his third, but the ninth wicket pair of Tom Scriven and Wood halted the slide and took the score to 231 at tea.
They only added two more runs after the interval before Douthwaite induced an inside edge off Scriven (25) through to Cooke and then Chris Wright scored a quick 14 before the innings finished on 251, a batting point secured.
This had been something of a recovery for Leicestershire and they took that impetus into the Glamorgan innings as Northeast edged the first ball, delivered by Holland, through to Handscomb. Tribe faced 19 balls for his four runs before playing on to the same bowler and Glamorgan were 27/2. They would have been in deeper trouble if Rahane had held on to a catch off Carlson when on 14, the batter edging Holland to second slip. However Ingram and Carlson scored quickly against the Leicestershire attack, although Ingram was given a life in the last over of the day as he hooked a ball firmly off Ahmed to Chris Wright at backward square leg.
Glamorgan will be the happier of the two teams and there will be no complaints about the Kookaburra ball this evening.
