No Night Terrors For Glamorgan As Day Belongs To Them

By Alun Rhys Chivers

 

Glamorgan will be the happier of the two sides after day one of their day-night Championship clash with Derbyshire at Cardiff, having bowled the visitors out for 288, and ending the day on 5-0 in reply.

Derbyshire failed to capitalise on winning the toss as it took Glamorgan just 3.4 overs to get their first wicket with the pink ball on the same strip that had been used by England and South Africa in their T20 clash. Timm van der Gugten trapped Luis Reece leg before wicket as the batsman shouldered arms with his team on 1.

But an unbeaten 85 partnership between Wayne Madsen and captain Billy Godleman in the remainder of the session led the visitors’ to a recovery. Madsen had reached his fifty from 77 balls and went on to hit eight fours before lunch, his partner chipping in with three of his own.

However, Glamorgan’s second breakthrough of the innings came shortly after the interval, when Wayne Madsen (70) offered a poor shot outside off-stump to keeper Chris Cooke off van der Gugten, ending a 98 partnership with his skipper. Alex Hughes and Godleman had added 28 before the latter swiped outside his off stump off Marchant de Lange and into the gloves of Cooke who claimed his second catch of the innings.

A third catch soon followed for Cooke, the first of three wickets for four runs in a period of intense pressure. Gary Wilson reluctantly departed as an uppish delivery from Marchant de Lange beat him, and Derbyshire were 139-4 as Cooke claimed a third catch. Graham Wagg trapped Alex Hughes leg before wicket to claim his first wicket of the season, and he duly celebrated in his trademark aggressive fashion with Derbyshire on 141-5. The sixth fell on 143, Nick Selman taking an impressive slip catch to dismiss Sri Lankan all-rounder Jeevan Mendis off Graham Wagg for two.

Derbyshire laboured to 150 as Tom Taylor and Daryn Smit came together.  But they only got to 157 before Taylor was caught behind to give Cooke his fourth catch off van der Gugten from the last delivery before tea to leave the visitors struggling on 157-7.

If the first two sessions had belonged to Glamorgan, the last certainly belonged to the visitors as they fought back with a useful 66 partnership between Tom Milnes and Daryn Smit under the full glow of the lights. But Smit fell to Marchant de Lange, with Andrew Salter taking the catch at gully with the score on 223.

Derbyshire were 257-8 when Tom Milnes reached his half-century from 87 balls in the closing stages of the day, the visitors having secured their second batting point. Chris Cooke took his fifth catch of the innings to dismiss Tom Milnes for 53 off Michael Hogan at 261-9, bringing 16 year old Hamidullah Qadri to the crease as the first ‘millennial’ and the youngest ever cricketer to appear for Derbyshire in the County Championship.

The last wicket fell as Tony Palladino skied to Graham Wagg at mid-off as Michael Hogan took the wicket, Derbyshire all out for 288 with four overs remaining of the day.

Jacques Rudolph and nightwatchman Timm van der Gugten opened the batting for Glamorgan with four overs remaining of the day.