Glamorgan welcome Surrey (and Kevin Pietersen) to the SWALEC Stadium for their first home fixture of the 2015 season in the LV=County Championship as the two sides meet in a four-day encounter which is scheduled to get underway at the Cardiff ground at 11am on Sunday, April 19th (Gates open at 10am).
Match Preview
The Welsh county were successful last April at The Kia Oval as they began their Championship campaign of 2014 with an emphatic ten-wicket victory over the Surrey side. However the South London side gained revenge later in the summer as they handsomely defeated Glamorgan by nine wickets at Colwyn Bay.
Glamorgan have never beaten Surrey at their impressive new headquarters in the Welsh capital city, with their last Championship win in Cardiff over the South London side having come over fifty years ago in 1960 at the Arms Park, when half-centuries from Tony Lewis and Gilbert Parkhouse saw the Welsh county to a six-wicket victory. Since 1966 - when Glamorgan vacated the Arms Park and moved to Sophia Gardens - Surrey have won five Championship games at Cardiff whilst their last three matches at the SWALEC Stadium - in 2009, 2010 and 2011 have all ended in draws.
Indeed, Glamorgan victories on home soil against Surrey in Championship cricket have been few and far between. Their last home victory came at Swansea in 1983, where the Welsh side completed a successful run-chase on the final afternoon to win by five wickets. Before that, they were victorious in 1968 at Neath where a superb innings of 85 by Majid Khan laid the foundations of a comprehensive ten-wicket win.
Much has been made in the Press about this game seeing the return to County Championship cricket of Kevin Pietersen in a bid to regain a place in the England set-up. Last weekend, he made 170 in a non first-class match at The Parks against the student cricketers of Oxford MCCU, and the game against Glamorgan will be Pietersen's first Championship game since June 21
st, 2013 when he made an unbeaten 177 against Yorkshire at Headingley Carnegie. It's almost ten years since he made his one and, so far, only Championship hundred against the Welsh county, scoring 126 for Hampshire before falling to David Harrison in the game at The Rose Bowl in May 2005.
Team News
Glamorgan have named an unchanged 12-man squad for the match against Surrey: JM Kettleborough, JA Rudolph (capt), WD Bragg, CA Ingram, CB Cooke, MA Wallace (wkt), DL Lloyd, GG Wagg, CAJ Meschede, DA Cosker, A Carter and WT Owen.