Glamorgan prepared for final home match of the season

15 Sep 2019 | Cricket

Head coach Matt Maynard has named a 13-man squad for the final home Specsavers County Championship match of the season against Leicestershire at Sophia Gardens.

Glamorgan will be looking to bounce back from a defeat to Worcestershire last week and climb back into the promotion places, while the visitors need to win to have any hope of overhauling Worcestershire and avoid the wooden spoon.

Andrew Salter returns to the County Championship squad for the first time since Colwyn Bay, having taken 2/22 and 5/49 in the 2nd XI victory against a combined Kent/Northants XI.

Timm van der Gugten is included, having marked his comeback from injury with a match haul of 5/112 against Worcestershire, while Michael Hogan took 4/53 in the first innings to take his season's tally to 38.

Despite the defeat to Worcestershire, Captain Chris Cooke remains optimistic about his side’s chances of victory over Leicestershire.

"We’ve got talented cricketers, and we showed that at the start of the season and it’s about getting back to what worked well for us," said Cooke. 

“There are chances for guys to stand up, show what they are about and make big contributions in the last couple of matches."

Cooke was full of praise for his bowling attack’s efforts against a strong Worcestershire batting side that contained Moeen Ali, Hamish Rutherford and Darryl Mitchell.

“On day one the guys bowled beautifully. Michael Hogan showed why he’s been so successful, and Lukas was unlucky not to take more wickets. He’s bowled some incredible spells this year, with a bit of pace and accuracy and nipping the ball around and somehow the wickets haven’t fallen at his end.

“It was great to see Timm back in the wickets and Ruaidhri did a great job keeping it tight and hopefully we can get a similar performance from them this week."

With Gloucestershire losing but Durham and Northamptonshire winning in the previous round of games, the clash against Leicestershire is a must-win game in the race for promotion.

“We know what we have to do. We’ll have our plans, and it’s about sticking to them and executing them. If we can do that, we have a shot at making up some ground.

“Leicestershire are better than their record suggests. Cozzie and Colin [Ackermann] are top players, while they’ve also got some great youngsters coming through who are eager to prove something.

"We won’t be taking them lightly, but we want to show why we are in the race for promotion and we want to give something back to the fans who have followed us around the country all season."

Glamorgan 13-man squad to face Leicestershire: Cooke*+, Lloyd, Selman, Salter, Cullen, Wagg, Root, Brathwaite, Patel, Carey, vd Gugten, Smith and Hogan. 

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