Glamorgan in strong position to secure first home win of the season against Leicestershire

Glamorgan are well placed to push for victory on the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Leicestershire in Cardiff.

The hosts added 132 runs for their final five wickets before reducing their opponents to 158 for seven at the end of play on Saturday.

Leicestershire’s lead is just 41 runs and they will need to offer some lower-order resistance on Sunday to avoid defeat in Division Two.

Glamorgan, who are pushing for their first home win of the season, started the day on 305 for five and a half-century from Chris Cooke and useful contributions from Michael Neser and James Weighell took the home side to a first-innings lead of 117.

Leicestershire picked up the early wicket of Andy Gorvin, who was dismissed lbw for 23 by Beuran Hendricks when he left a ball that came back into him, to leave the hosts six wickets down and still trailing by nine runs.

But a stand of 65 between Cooke and Neser took them into the lead, with Cooke passing 50 from 138 balls.

Cooke’s dismissal came when Callum Parkinson bowled the perfect left-arm spinner’s delivery that turned passed his bat and clipped his off stump.

Missing out

Glamorgan finished on 437 all out, with Weighell the last man out for 34 with the home team narrowly missing out on full batting bonus points.

Two early wickets reduced Leicestershire to 15 for two.

Sam Evans was caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Cooke off the bowling of Michael Hogan, while Rishi Patel – who made a career-best 82 in the first innings – lasted just seven balls on day three, edging a beautiful delivery from Neser to Cooke.

A 66-run partnership between Hassan Azad and Louis Kimber chipped away at the Glamorgan lead but Neser struck again with another stunning delivery that came back just enough to bowl the latter for 37.

Azad went on to his second half-century of the match, bringing up the landmark from 88 balls, as Leicestershire battled to wipe out the Glamorgan lead.

But David Lloyd picked up the wickets of Azad and Wiaan Mulder in the space of two overs to leave Leicestershire in real trouble. When Azad was caught at slip for 58 off a ball that lifted on him, his team were just two runs to the good and five wickets down.

The lead was just 22 when Neser got the sixth Leicestershire wicket, Scott Steel going lbw for 18, and had crept to 41 when Harry Swindells was bowled by a Weighell ball that he left alone to bring the day to a close.