County make 225-5 on first day at St Helen's

Date: Wednesday 21 July 2010

A century stand between Jacques du Toit (75) and James Taylor (70) was the highlight of proceedings on the first day of the LV=County Championship match against Glamorgan at Swansea.

County closed on 225-5 after 98 overs of play after du Toit and Taylor put on 109 for the third wicket but three late wickets checked what had been steady progress.

After all the hullabaloo of Friends Provident t20, Leicestershire’s batsmen got their heads down to a traditional day of hard yakka.

du Toit and Taylor built on good work from Will Jefferson (27) and Matthew Boyce (38), who earlier shared an opening stand of 57 but the late strikes of the pair and Paul Nixon were a blow to County’s hopes of posting a huge first innings total.

Experienced off-spinner Robert Croft – often a thorn in Leicestershire’s side – was the pick of the attack and he moved to 999 career first-class wickets for the Dragons by taking the scalps of Boyce and du Toit.

The fact he got stuck on that mark was no emergency and he will become the first player to do the 10,000 run-1,000 wicket double for Glamorgan when he gets another victim.

The off-spinner, who had impressive figures of 27-9-43-2 was the most successful bowler on a St Helen’s pitch that notoriously suits the tweakers.

Young seamer James Harris also got plenty out of the surface. Like Croft, Harris was a model of discipline in sending down 23 probing overs at a cost of just 37 runs and the home side certainly made County work for their runs after electing to bat.

It certainly looked a good toss to win as the wicket in Swansea generally wears and Leicestershire had unsurprisingly opted to play their two in-form spinners.

Glamorgan also have three slow men in their ranks so skipper Matthew Hoggard would have been mighty pleased to see the coin land his way.

There were plenty of signs of turn on day one, so Leicestershire will be pleased to have runs on the board at this stage.

The Leicestershire team showed two changes to the side that won at New Road earlier this month.Although overseas star Andrew McDonald was ruled out with a shoulder problem, Boyce was fit again after a niggle and Wayne White also came into the XI.

They replaced James Benning and Nathan Buck while Jefferson passed a fitness test on an Achilles problem. That enabled him to resume partnership with Boyce and the pair set about their task with great patience.

The opening batsmen played with due care early on in the face of some accurate seam bowling from Harris, David Harrison and former Leicestershire favourite Jim Allenby.

Harris went for just eight runs in his opening nine over burst but Jefferson and Boyce did find the boundary five times between them when the opportunity arose to be slightly more expansive.

Jefferson drove three times through the cover region and Boyce played a trademark cover drive and also clipped through mid-wicket as the batsmen made progress.

Harris, like Chris Woakes on Sunday, proved they have bright futures ahead of them and when the indefatigable youngster finally had a rest, Mark Cosgrove came into the attack.

Everything was going nicely for the team as they passed fifty but Cosgrove and Allenby combined to produce the first breakthrough.

Jefferson had made 27 when he edged the former Fox and Cosgrove took an excellent diving catch in the cordon to end his stay at the crease.

Dean Cosker and Croft formed a spin partnership shortly prior to lunch but none of Croft’s required wickets came before the interval as Boyce and du Toit took the score on to 71-1.

The tweakers, like their seam colleagues, were nothing if not parsimonious in general but du Toit hit two boundaries after the break as the batsman settled alongside the watchful Boyce.

The left hander was finally dismissed for a patient 38 as he edged Croft to mark Wallace, so the spinner was one step closer to reaching the landmark.

However, after that wicket, du Toit and Taylor constructed a steady partnership as Leicestershire continued to play nicely. Taylor looked to get after the spinners and he struck Cosker for successive fours as he got his eye in.

Captain Jamie Dalrymple became the third slow bowler used during the day as Croft briefly left the field to get treatment for an injury, and when he returned, the batsmen decided to take him on.

Taylor also hit Croft straight for four and six while du Toit cut to the ropes as he moved towards fifty. The batsman reached that milestone shortly prior to tea, and it came from the 126th ball he received.

The 147 minute knock included five fours and was the fourth time the batsman had passed the fifty mark in the Championship this season.

His colleague Taylor was unbeaten on 43 at tea as the score reached 165-2 and the duo continued to build after tea. Taylor moved to his own fifty from 124 balls and his innings included four fours and a six at that stage.

He was now well past 600 Championship runs for the season and the partnership passed one hundred as the pair continued to look in good form.

du Toit hit a straight six as he continued to prosper but he fell to Croft, who had taken the new ball after 80 overs alongside Harris. With twelve overs officially remaining in the day, Croft snared his 999th career wicket as du Toit was dismissed in the same manner as Boyce earlier.

The batsman had shown great patience in striking six fours and a six during a 173-ball innings and looked set to make a well-deserved second first-class ton of the season.

The wily spinner ended those hopes though and the wicket bought Nixon to the crease. The batsman has been used to opening or batting number three this season but was in a new role at five and he joined Taylor, who continued to look in good touch.

Nixon couldn’t get going in what was a horrible little period to bat and he fell without scoring as Harris, who had bowled with heart all day, picked up some reward for his efforts.

The skipper took the catch at second slip and that left Leicestershire on 206-4. Taylor continued to work hard and a cut through backward point raced to the ropes.

Just as he looked set to see things through though, Cosker returned to claim his first wicket of the day. The slow left armer trapped the batsman leg before and that left Tom New and White to take matters into the close.

It was certainly a day of hard graft and Leicestershire currently have one batting point to show for their efforts. There are twelve overs remaining in which County can post some more batting points.