Leicestershire enjoyed much the better of the opening day’s Championship cricket in Cardiff, as they dismissed Glamorgan for 229 and then batted out the remaining 19 overs of play, to end on 65/1. Glamorgan were thankful to new temporary signing Shoaib Bashir for a 53 run ninth wicket partnership with veteran keeper Chris Cooke.
It looked a useful toss for the Foxes’ skipper Peter Handscomb to win and he immediately asked Glamorgan to bat first.
Asitha Fernando and Shoaib Bashir were new faces in the home side’s line up, while Leicestershire are still awaiting the arrival of Logan van Beek, but do have the services of Ben Green, on loan again from Somerset.
The Glamorgan opening pair has been something of musical chairs over recent years and it was Eddie Byrom and Zain-ul-Hassan who walked out under murky skies to face the Leicestershire new ball attack. The pitch had a prominent green colour and Ian Holland extracted enough movement from the first ball of the second over to induce an edge from the bat of ul-Hassan, smartly taken by Handscomb at second slip.
Byrom and Sam Northeast rode their luck to take the score to 60, as the ball regularly beat the bat, or edges dropped short, but then Tom Scriven trapped Northeast lbw for 17. Byrom edged Green to Cox for 41 and the Foxes were on top at 78/3. It was then a matter of Kiran Carlson and Colin Ingram seeing Glamorgan through to lunch, with the score on 90/3. The one concern for Leicestershire was that Rishi Patel had dislocated a finger in the third over of the game, while making an awkward stop at first slip.
The players took to the field after lunch under clear skies and Ingram and Carlson rattled along at almost a run-a-ball before Holland produced an excellent leg cutter that clipped the top of Carlson’s off stump, out for 25 and Glamorgan were 123/4. Ingram (32) went shortly after, lbw to the same bowler and Leicestershire were in control, as any burgeoning partnership had been nipped in the bud. Ingram passed 9000 first class runs during this innings.
The innings limped to tea, Chris Cooke the one remaining batter who looked to be putting up any significant resistance, ending the session on 29 and Glamorgan on 181/8.
After the break, Cooke and Bashir completed the only 50 plus partnership of the innings, both batters playing some confident shots, before Bashir was bowled by fellow England spinner Rehan Ahmed for 20. Next over, Cooke edged Ben Mike to Handscomb at slip, out for 55 and Glamorgan ended on 229. Mike and Holland finished with three wickets a piece.
When Leicestershire came to bat, Holland walked out with Sol Budinger, in the absence of Patel, with 19 overs left in the day’s play. Conditions were much more conducive to batting than they had been in the morning, but Timm van der Gugten induced an edge from Holland in the fifth over and the Foxes were 18/1. It was something of a surprise then to see Mike walk out at three, but he and Budinger saw out the rest of the day, ending on 15 and 36 respectively. Glamorgan will be ruing a missed opportunity to dismiss Budinger when on 18; a straightforward chance to Ingram at first slip off the ever toiling van der Gugten.
Glamorgan will be hoping to make inroads into the Leicestershire batting on the morning of day two, but wickets are likely to be harder to come by as the match progresses, particularly with clear skies forecast.
