Sophia Gardens

Glamorgan v Leicestershire

(County Championship)

29 Aug-1 Sep 2024

Going into this one, fourth placed Leicestershire still retained a viable chance of finishing in the top two positions of The County Championship Division 2, and hence gaining promotion.  Sussex looked favourites for the title, but both Middlesex in second and Yorkshire in third looked catchable.  And with these last two named playing each other in this round of matches, this trip to Glamorgan offered the potential for Leicestershire to make ground on at least one of their rivals.

Day One

However, this season's regular failing of shipping early wickets returned to haunt the visitors, as Rishi Patel, Matt Holland and Lewis Hill all disappeared before lunch.  Ajinkya Rahane followed soon after the break, all four having fallen to Glamorgan's Dutch internationalist Timm van der Gugten.  This left Leicestershire on 111/4; although things could have been so much worse had Rahane not been dropped by Dan Douthwaite on 16.  Rahane going onto make a further 26 before his dismissal.  

Douthwaite then proceeded more than make amends though, by ploughing on through the Leics. middle order, taking four for 49 in eleven overs.  Tailenders Tom Scriven and Sam Wood did their best to take their side's tally into the realms of respectability with knocks of 25 and 34 respectively, but when the latter fell caught by Colin Ingram, the visitors' innings had creaked and groaned to a modest 251.

Glamorgan got off to the worst possible start in reply, Sam Northeast caught first ball of the innings.  And when the nervy looking debutant Asa Tribe was dismissed in the ninth over Glamorgan looked a bit rattled on 27/2.

But once Colin Ingram and Cardiff-born Kiran Carlson got settled in, and realised there was little real threat in the Leicestershire attack, the pair moved into One-Day mode and began scoring disconcertingly freely.  By the close of play, the pair had taken their side's total to 114/2, having scored 16 boundaries between them.

Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

Panorama of Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.

Opening ball of the match - Timm van der Gugten to Rishi Patel.

Guess the Joy Division song.

Glamorgan have been county champions on three occasions, most recently in 1997.

Scoreboard at the close of Day One

Day Two

A grimly dispiriting day at the office for Leicestershire, as Glamorgan added a further 347 runs to their overnight total to build lead of 180.  Colin Ingram made an unbeaten double century as the visiting seamers toiled in the Cardiff sunshine.

It was only when Leics. captain Lewis Hill turned to Rehan Ahmed's spin that the visitors finally managed to make any inroads into the Glamorgan innings; the young lad taking the wickets of both Kiran Carlson and Billy Root.  

Ingram, however, remained almost immunologically immune to anything Ahmed could conjure up - indeed the South African apparently effortlessly dealing with anything thrown at him by a Leicestershire attack best described as anaemic.  Tom Scriven in particular looked all at sea; he, by the end of play, having shipped 88 runs in his 21 overs.

At the close of play Ingram had reached 206 not out, his highest ever first class total.  No bad fur a 39-year old.

 

My daily commute to Sophia Gardens took me past The Millenium Stadium

Opening ball of Day Two

This is Tom Scriven bowling to Colin Ingram in the 35th over of Glamorgan's innings...

The bails go flying from a fielder, but Ingram was well safe.

Players break for lunch at the end of the first session on Day Two.

Groundsmen doing their stuff.

It took me ages to work out what this was meant to be.
I, rather embarrassingly, initially thought it was a
stylistic representation of a cricketer at a wicket.
But it is, of course, a daffodil.

The benign wicket

Each day, once the shadows began to lengthen, three or four wagtails
would arrive on the pitch to hunt insects.
Each successful dart and catch was celebrated with their characteristic tail-wag.

Colin Ingram's 200.

Scoreboard at the end of Day Two.

Day Three

After a few overs spent settling in Colin Ingram, aided and abetted by first Mason Crane and then Fraser Sheate, set about raising the run rate considerably.  Ingram's remarkable innings eventually came to end, not through losing his wicket, but a consequence of his side's declaration on 555/9.  The south African having scored 257 runs from 375 balls, including 28 fours and a solitary six.  Impressive.

Rather less impressive was Leicestershire's second innings start, for they were two down within 14 overs - Lewis Hill's wretched season continuing - the unfortunate chap out for a duck.  Ian Holland's subsequent departure left Leics on 74/3 - still some 225 in arrears - but it did bring together the Rahane/Handscombe partnership.  And this pair steadied the rocking ship more than somewhat, negotiating the remainder of a rain and bad light shortened final session.  They put together a partnership of 70 by the close of play to pull Leicestershire's total to 144 at the close of play - still 155 runs behind.

The first ball of Day Three

 

In one corner of the ground may be found the Museum of Welsh Cricket.
I find most of these exhibits of bats, balls and newspaper clippings leave me cold.
But there were interesting and informative displays on the walls detailing
the history of cricket in Wales throughout the decades. 

...and there was a great view of the ground from the museum window.

The rain briefly came and forced an early tea.

Later on, play was suspended for bad light.
Here, I assume, is Glamorgan skipper Sam Northeast
pleading his case for restarting using spinners.  To no avail.

The scoreboard at the end of Day Three

Day Four

Before even getting to Sophia Gardens for Day Four, I had to negotiate the Brecon Carreg Cardiff 10K fun day, wherein 7,000 folks pounded the streets of Cardiff for "fun".  I should stress here, by using the word "negotiate" I am not for a moment suggesting I participated, but rather had to cross the road to get to the cricket ground dangerously weaving through the crowd of runners.  Quite a feat, I thought. 

First ball of Day Four

Well, with the aid of some not inconsiderable (but perhaps considerate) late afternoon precipitation which wiped out the final 23.4 overs, Leicestershire negotiated the final day to snuffle out Glamorgan's chances of forcing a win.  Both sides having to settle for a draw.  Peter Handscombe, playing his final match of the season for Leicestershire before flying back to Oz on the morn, was the prime factor in Leics' rescuing a draw - he coming in with his side rocking on 74/3, and his subsequent unbeaten 139 helping to guide the visitors to 269/6 by the end of the day.  

Rahane's century also helped no end - even though I was more than touch annoyed the way he carelessly threw his wicket away going for another big hit.  This, at a point in the match where protecting his wicket appeared to me to be far more important than going for boundaries.  Louis Kimber and Liam Trevaskis also made significant contributions to Leicestershire's rear guard action, before rain finally brought an end to proceedings.  

There was a grand total of 53 spectators in the ground at the start of Day Four.
I counted.

Sunday lunch was chicken and trimmings - prob the best meal I have had at a cricket ground.

Peter Handscomb about to hit a four in the 56th over.

Ajinkya Rahane

Above and below - Peter Handscombe's century.

A groundsman's work is never done.

Off go the players, and on comes the hovercraft.

End of match scoreboard.

So - this stalemate failed to significantly progress the promotion ambitions of either Leicestershire or Glamorgan.  But, given the Yorkshire v Sussex match also ended in a draw, it did not adversely affect either side too much either.  Other than both are running out of matches, if they hope to overhaul those sides ahead of them in the table.

Leicestershire next face Yorkshire at Grace Road with a win here surely imperative now.