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Day two Leicestershire 109, 6-1 Glamorgan 350-8 declared. Leicestershire trail Glamorgan by 235 runs with nine second innings wickets remaining.
Glamorgan are in complete control at the halfway stage of their county championship match with Leicestershire.
On the opening day the county’s bowlers excelled as they dismissed Leicestershire for just 109 after captain Mark Wallace won the toss and elected to bowl.
And the batsmen complimented their bowlers by compiling a total of 350 for eight declared with South African Jacques Rudolph (88), Chris Cooke (58) and Jim Allenby (44) the major contributors.
This gave Glamorgan an ominous first innings lead of 241 following a bold declaration from Wallace which enabled the hosts to bowl six overs at their struggling opponents at the death.
Opener Greg Smith was dismissed by Tom Helm leaving Leicestershire limping to six for one, still needing 235 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
The Welsh county will hope rain over the next couple of days won’t spoil their quest for a second championship win of the summer.
Rudolph and Will Bragg utilised the sunny Swalec Stadium conditions on the second morning as they brought up their 50 partnership.
Rudolph scored his third 50 for Glamorgan with all these half-centuries recorded against Leicestershire. The former Proteas star has taken a liking to the Leicestershire attack, scoring two 60s at Grace Road, while struggling in his other first-class matches since his arrival from South Africa.
Rudolph is beginning to show his class with two major contributions in the Twenty20 matches, including 68 against Essex last Friday. This fluent 50 in Cardiff came from 69 balls with seven fours.
Bragg was the first wicket to fall when he edged to second slip from Charlie Shreck for 21 with Smith taking the sharp catch. This ended a second-wicket of 73 as Glamorgan were reduced to 116 for two.
Rudolph and Ben Wright, who was playing his first championship game of the summer after replacing Stewart Walters, guided Glamorgan through to 148 for two at lunch.
And Rudolph appeared to be honing on his first Glamorgan century and become the first player from the county to reach three figures this season.
But the left-hander was bogged down on 88 by Shreck’s nagging tactic of bowling wide outside the off stump.
After 18 balls of not scoring, Rudolph edged a Shreck delivery to wicket-keeper Niall O’Brien which ended the third wicket partnership of 61 in 24 overs.
Wright was the next wicket to fall for 36 when he edged Nathan Buck to Smith at slip.
Allenby and Cooke proved to be in free flowing mood in the latter stages of afternoon session as they moved onto 253 for five at tea.
In the evening session, Allenby holed out to Shreck at fine-leg from Buck’s bowling to end the fifth-wicket stand of 80 runs in 20.4 overs.
Mark Wallace scored a breezy 18 before departing in tame fashion when he was caught down the leg side by O’Brien from Taylor.
While Wallace and Allenby were guilty of soft dismissals as they looked to up the run rate, Cooke was watchful after tea and brought up his 50 in 92 balls which included five fours.
Cooke was unfortunate to be left out of the starting side in the opening game against Surrey and has had to bide his time after missing the first five matches.
The South African-born batsman was only drafted into this contest after Murray Goodwin was ruled out through illness and has taken his chance.
Cooke was eventually the victim of a fine catch from Leicestershire skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan whose diving effort at long-off handed spinner Jigar Naik his first wicket.
Sarwan took an easier effort in the next over at mid-on to dismiss Dean Cosker (11) and hand Shreck his third wicket. Michael Hogan and Will Owen ensured Glamorgan secured a fourth batting bonus point before declaring on 350 for eight, a first innings lead of 241.
This gave the home Hogan and Helm half a dozen overs at Leicestershire before the close. And Helm struck in the fourth over to dismiss Greg Smith with Jacques Rudolph snaffling the second slip catch as Leicestershire were reduced to 1-1 before adding five more runs before the close.
Day one Leicetershire 109, Glamorgan 56-1. Glamorgan trail by 53 runs with nine first innings wickets remaining.
Michael Hogan returned to county championship cricket with a bang by bowling Greg Smith with the second ball of the game. The seamer was playing his first Division Two match for over a month after returning from Australia following the birth of his second child.
Rain stopped play with Leicestershire six for one after 5.1 overs. Seven overs were lost before the players returned at 12.15pm and Tom Helm struck when he trapped Angus Robson lbw for five.
Helm was successful again when Ned Eckersley played onto his own stumps for nine as Leicestershire slipped to 17 for three in the 10th over. Will Owen claimed a wicket with his second ball when Josh Cobb holed out to Will Bragg at mid-off for four as the visitors fell to 30 for four.
This became 34 for five when Allenby dismissed dangerman Ramnaresh Sarwan in his first over with a superb delivery that the West Indian edged to captain Mark Wallace before the visitors moved onto 43 at lunch.
The afternoon session only lasted two balls before the players left the field because of rain. Play was due to restart at 2.10pm with a further seven overs lost before more rain fell delayed the resumption to 2.25pm.
Once play had restarted, Niall O’Brien became the sixth wicket to fall when he edged behind to Wallace from Allenby for 17 as Leicestershire stumbled to 62 for six.
Rob Taylor fell in the next over when he provided Wallace with another catch with the wicket-keeper’s diving effort handing Hogan his second victim.
Jigar Naik survived two difficult chances in successive balls from Owen’s bowling. Helm dropped an opportunity at fine leg which he parried over the boundary for six when Naik was on nought and Owen missed a tricky caught and bowled chance from the next delivery.
But Anthony Ireland was dismissed for 17 when he spooned an Owen delivery to Dean Cosker at point as Leicestershire reached 88 for eight. That became 90 for nine when Nathan Buck edged behind to Wallace with Owen celebrating his third victim.
Some lusty blows from Charlie Shreck took Leicestershire above 100 while Naik survived another chance on 12 when Tom Lancefield dropped a hard effort at mid-wicket from Owen.
Allenby ended the innings when he bowled Shreck for 15 as he finished with three for 20 in 13 overs, including six maidens, with Leicestershire bowled out for 109 in 38 overs with tea taken.
Jacques Rudolph and debutant Tom Lancefield guided Glamorgan through to 34 for no wicket before rain intervened again. On the return, Lancefield was dismissed for 19 when he skied a hook shot to wicket-keeper O’Brien from Rob Taylor as Glamorgan lost their first wicket on 43.
Glamorgan moved onto 56 for one before rain again intervened and play ended for the day.
Toss and Team news
Play was delayed until 11.30am because of a wet outfield.
Glamorgan captain Mark Wallace won the toss and elected to field with the Welsh county making four changes from the side who lost to Hampshire in their last Division Two match.
The home side dropped batting duo Gareth Rees and Stewart Walters with Tom Lancefield, making his Glamorgan first-team debut, and Ben Wright drafted in. Murray Goodwin missed out through illness with Chris Cooke selected, while Australian seamer Michael Hogan also replaced Ruaidhri Smith.
Glamorgan: T Lancefield, J Rudolph, W Bragg, C Cooke, B Wright, J Allenby, M Wallace (capt), D Cosker, W Owen T Helm, M Hogan.
Leicestershire: G Smith, A Robson, N Eckersley, R Sarwan (capt), J Cobb, N O’Brien, R Taylor, J Naik, A Ireland, N Buck, C Shreck.
History
When Leicestershire visited the Cardiff ground in 2012 the contest ended all-square, but on their previous two visits to the Welsh capital, the East Midlands side had been heavily beaten by Glamorgan.
In September 2008 Glamorgan were victorious by ten wickets after Gareth Rees had made 140 and Michael Powell 120, before an eight-wicket haul by tall seamer David Harrison had seen Leicestershire follow-on.
Leicestershire were trounced by the mammoth margin of 409 runs as the Welsh county completed a sequence of four successive victories that summer in Championship cricket.
The architects of this overwhelming victory were centurions Matthew Maynard, Jonathan Hughes and Robert Croft, before the visitors were bundled out for 137 with David Harrison taking 3/17 and Alex Wharf 3/37.
The last time Leicestershire won a first-class game at the Cardiff ground was in July 2001 when they were victorious by an innings and 90 runs after openers Iain Sutcliffe (203) and Trevor Ward (109) had shared a first wicket stand of 198.
Phil de Freitas then took 6/65 as Glamorgan followed-on before fellow England fast bowler Devon Malcolm claimed 5/98 as Glamorgan, who were following on, were dismissed for a second time.
The two sides met earlier this season at Grace Road with the game ending in a draw after a defiant half-century from Stewart Walters, following fifties by Jacques Rudolph and Murray Goodwin in Glamorgan’s second innings.
