Leicestershire Edge Day One Against Glamorgan

By Jon Culley

Leicestershire just about had the upper hand on a rain-affected opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship against Glamorgan after skipper Lewis Hill and former captain Colin Ackermann had shared a 100-run partnership.

Their third-wicket stand provided the main substance in a total of 241 for five as a continuation of the wet spring weather limited play to 66.2 overs.

Hill followed his career-best unbeaten 162 against Derbyshire two weeks ago with a second half-century of the season. The in-form Ackermann, after scores of 67, 72 and 114 in his three previous innings this season, added 45 to raise his tally for the season to 298.

His fellow Netherlands international Timm van der Gugten, with four for 45, was  the pick of the Glamorgan bowlers, taking two wickets before lunch and another two in the afternoon to keep the home side in check.

Leicestershire were keen to prove their extraordinary victory over Yorkshire in the opening round of the Division Two programme was no fluke. They were frustrated by the weather when they took on Derbyshire at the Uptonsteel County Ground two weeks ago, with two complete days washed out.

Conditions were at least dry if cold at the start of this match, and Leicestershire could be pretty pleased with their morning’s work after Glamorgan skipper David Lloyd had won the toss and decided he would field first.

As a unit, Loyd’s seam bowling attack struggled to hit the right lengths on a mottled-looking pitch, with the notable exception of Van der Gugten, who took wickets in his first and third overs after coming on at first change at the Bennett End, removing both openers.

He struck with his third delivery to see off Sol Budinger, the left-hander, who had gathered 26 runs with typical urgency before Van der Gugten came round the wicket to knock out his off stump. Rishi Patel, with whom Budinger put on 43 for the first wicket, soon followed, caught behind off a ball that climbed on him as he tried to force it through the off side.

Yet Hill and Ackermann looked increasingly comfortable in guiding Leicestershire to 123 for two at lunch, after which Hill hit fours off Michael Neser and Lloyd to raise his boundary tally to eight in an 82-ball half-century.

However, no sooner had the third-wicket pair taken their partnership to 100 than both were dismissed in consecutive overs by Van der Gugten, whose appeal was upheld to the apparent surprise of the Leicestershire batter as Ackermann was pronounced leg before to a ball that was certainly angling towards leg side.

Finding some movement off the pitch, the Australia-born Van der Guften  followed up by having Hill caught behind, the Leicestershire captain feeling he had to defend his stumps against a ball that nipped away to take the edge. From 152 for two, the home side were 153 for four in the blink of an eye and Van der Gugten had all four wickets.

Peter Handscomb and Wiaan Mulder were not the worst pair to be charged with a rebuilding job but the South African, in need of a score to settle him in to the new campaign, found his luck out again, bowled by a delivery from Michael Neser that he felt he could safely leave only for it to swing in and then dart back sharply off the pitch to hit his off stump.

At 168 for five, Leicestershire could have lost their way but Australian Test wicketkeeper-batter Peter Handscomb was well supported by the ever-improving fledgling England player Rehan Ahmed, the teenage leg-spinning all-rounder in making sure that did not happen.

Either side of a two-hour stoppage for rain, the pair added an unbroken 73 for the sixth wicket, of which Ahmed has made 38, chancing a few youthfully extravagant shots but generally playing in a way that reflects his growing maturity.