Cosgrove hits 50 in draw

The hard-fought LV=CC match between Leicestershire and Glamorgan ended in a draw at Grace Road with County taking 11 points from the contest.

Glamorgan resumed their second innings on 47-3 and went on to make 227-7 before declaring, therefore setting Leicestershire 306 to win from a minimum of 50 overs.

The visitors had County 1-2 after seven balls of the fourth innings and that meant the team had to put safety first.

Mark Cosgrove and Neil Pinner were the mainstays of the Leicestershire second innings, sharing an unbroken 99 as the team scored 141-3 before the skipper shook hands with opposite number Jacques Rudolph.

Earlier in the day, Leicestershire were looking for quick wickets to keep the visitors under pressure but Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke had other ideas. They played well against Charlie Shreck and Tom Wells in the opening 40 minutes.

A change from skipper Cosgrove worked a treat as Ollie Freckingham struck with his first ball, Ingram nicking through to Niall O’Brien for 17.

Mark Wallace then reached a notable landmark, progressing to 10,000 first-class career runs when he gathered his seventh run of the innings. But the keeper fell after the addition of a further single, O’Brien taking his fourth of the innings, this time off Ben Raine.

Cooke and Graham Wagg steadied the ship and the former moved to a 95-ball 50 (5x4) before lunch. Cooke nicked Wells just wide of slip in the penultimate over of the morning session and the 50 stand was registered in the last over.

When the players went for their meal, Glamorgan were 155-5, which represented an advantage of 224. Cooke and Wagg went for their shots after lunch and paid the price. The stand moved to 75 before the former fell for 81, held by Shreck running round from mid-off off the bowling of Raine.

A second wicket fell with the score on 179 as Wagg edged Freckingham and a tumbling O’Brien claimed his fifth catch of the innings to take his match tally to nine. Suddenly things had become interesting but Glamorgan decided that attack was the best form of defence.

Craig Meschede hit Shreck for two consecutive fours and then took 18 off four successive deliveries from Wells before Glamorgan called time on their innings. The Somerset loanee ended on a  bright 33 not out with David Lloyd 15*.

Bowling figures; Sheikh 4.1-1-14-0, Raine 14-4-50-2, Shreck 20.5-3-59-2, Wells 10.5-2-52-1, Freckingham 14-3-47-2.

Glamorgan drew first blood as Dan Redfern (0) and Ned Eckersley (1) edged to Cosker at second slip off Wagg and Meschede respectively. Robson and Cosgrove had to face an on-song attack but they negated the threat, taking the score to 34-2 after 14 overs at tea.

Robson (18) was bowled shouldering arms to Cosker immediately after the interval but Cosgrove and Pinner played nicely to guide the team through to the end of the game.

Cosgrove ended on an excellent 59 not out, his half-century coming from 106 with seven fours struck all around the ground. He struck a further two fours before the end. Pinner hit ten boundaries in a well-organised innings, including two beauties through extra cover and a flowing on-drive.

It was a good way to end a solid performance from Leicestershire, whose next game is also in the LV=County Championship, against Northamptonshire on Sunday, April 26.