da luck： The wicket at New Road continued to favour the bowlers as a further twelve wickets fellon the second day of the Championship match between Glamorgan and Worcestershire
Andrew Hignell01-Aug-2003The wicket at New Road continued to favour the bowlers as a further twelve wickets fellon the second day of the Championship match between Glamorgan and Worcestershire.Worcestershire gained a first innings lead of 81 runs as they dismissedGlamorgan for 156 with Matt Mason taking 3/22 and David Leatherdale 2/18. Then in thefinal session, the home team extended their lead to 201, but lost four wicketsin the process, finishing the day on 120/4.Morning rain once again prevented any play until 12.10pm, with Glamorgan resumingon 0/2 after their dramatic start last night when they lost Jimmy Maher andnight-watchman David Harrison in Nantie Hayward`s opening over. Nevertheless,Ian Thomas and Jonathan Hughes adopted a positive approach, with bothof the young batsmen driving powerfully in an arc between cover andmid-on. The pair had added 56 in 15 overs, before Hughes was bowled by Mason with thefinal delivery of the morning session.Seven wickets then fell between lunch and tea, as Glamorgan added a further 100runs. Mason made the early inroads, striking twice during his accurate spell fromthe New Road End, bowling Michael Powell for a duck, and having Matthew Maynardcaught in the slips by Stephen Peters. Thomas continued to pierce the field withsome firm strokes, and reached his first Championship half century of the summer,lofting Hayward back over his head, having faced 94 balls and hitting 9 boundaries.However, the introduction of Leatherdale halted Glamorgan`s progress as theWorcestershire beneficiary had Thomas caught at slip, before trapping Robert Croftleg before on the back foot. Leatherdale might have taken a third wicket hadAnurag Singh held onto a top edge from Mark Wallace. But Kabir Ali returned from theDiglis End to dismiss Darren Thomas and Michael Kasprowicz, whilst Gareth Batty hadWallace caught at cover, as Glamorgan`s innings ended with their score on 156.When Worcestershire batted again, Glamorgan`s seam bowlers also found early assistanceas Alex Wharf had Anurag Singh caught at second slip by Jimmy Maher and then two overslater Wharf yorked Graeme Hick. But Peters showed that run scoring was not impossible,and the opener played some well timed cover drives in reaching 50 from 74 balls. Togetherwith his captain Ben Smith, they added 66 for the third wicket, before Peters dragged the ball onto his stumps trying to sweep Croft.Then in the final over the day, Croft had Vikram Solanki caught at short-legby Ian Thomas, with Worcestershire 201 runs ahead with 6 wickets in hand.