Glamorgan welcome Leicestershire to Sophia Gardens for the Welsh county’s final home match in the Specsavers County Championship match with the four-day contest scheduled to get underway at 10.30am on Monday, September 16th.
(writes Andrew Hignell)
Having lost to Worcestershire – their third successive defeat in the competition – Glamorgan start their final home game of the summer in sixth place in the table, 20 points behind Gloucestershire who are in third place and 25 points adrift of second place Northamptonshire. To remain in the promotion race Glamorgan now need a full compliment of points and a victory against Leicestershire – currently at the bottom of the table – and a similar result against Durham next week in the final game of the summer at the Riverside Emirates.
Leicestershire visited the Sophia Gardens ground at the end of last summer and were beaten by 132 runs in a contest which saw Glamorgan end their sequence of sixteen Championship matches at Cardiff without a victory. Their win over the East Midlands side was set up by 83 from Kiran Carlson plus feisty half-centuries from Craig Meschede and Timm van der Gugten. Michael Hogan also took 4/30 but the scenario nearly changed as Dieter Klein smashed 94 in a stubborn last wicket stand before van der Gugten ended the game and the 2018 season by trapping the South African l.b.w.
Leicestershire had won by ten wickets in their match at Sophia Gardens in April 2016 with their victory – their first since 2001 at the Cardiff ground – being set up by a first innings haul of 6/73 by Clint McKay. The Australian then used the long handle to post a defiant half-century with Irishman Niall O’Brien also top-scoring with 93 before Ben Raine made inroads into Glamorgan’s second innings with the all-rounder claiming four wickets.
However, Glamorgan defeated Leicestershire by 137 runs when the two sides met at Cardiff in June 2015. Decent innings by Graham Wagg (94), Chris Cooke (84), Jacques Rudolph (74) and Colin Ingram (60) all put Glamorgan into the ascendancy before a fine bowling performance quelled the visitors efforts to chase a target of 324 in a minimum of 126 overs as Glamorgan eased to victory shortly after lunch on the final afternoon.