Worcestershire are Glamorgan’s next opponents at home in the 2019 Specsavers County Championship, with the West Midlands side meeting the Welsh county in a four-day encounter starting at Sophia Gardens at 11am on Sunday, June 30th (Gates open – 10am).
Glamorgan’s thrilling run-chase at Bristol gave them a four-wicket victory to take the Welsh county to the top of the Division Two table, one point above Lancashire who - like Glamorgan - remain unbeaten in first-class cricket this summer. Worcestershire are 43 points behind in sixth place, although the West Midlands side have only played six matches so far in 2019, compared to Glamorgan’s eight, and have also had the inconvenience of having to switch their recent matches from flood-hit New Road to Kidderminster, including their last Championship encounter against Sussex which ended in a draw.
Worcestershire were relegated from Division One last summer with their most recent visit to the Welsh capital in 2017 seeing them win by eight wickets after Tom Kohler-Cadmore had scored a century and rookie seam bowler Josh Tongue claim 5/45 to see the visitors to an emphatic victory – their first in Cardiff since 1991.
In 2016 Brett D’Oliveira had been the star of the show posting a maiden double-hundred as Worcestershire secured a dominant position. But after reducing Glamorgan to 41-4, they were unable to capitalise further on their position as the last two days of the contest were washed out.
Worcestershire’s visit to Cardiff in 2014 saw some personal milestones for former captain Daryl Mitchell who scored centuries in both innings before leaving Glamorgan a target of 382 runs from 102 overs. Will Bragg duly emulated Mitchell’s crease occupation by batting for six hours to watchfully nullify the threat posed by Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistani spinner and with decent support from Stewart Walters, Mark Wallace and Graham Wagg, the southpaw carefully guided Glamorgan to the safety of a draw.
2013 saw Glamorgan record their most recent victory in Championship cricket over Worcestershire as the Welsh county won by ten wickets in a contest which saw Mike Reed, claim 5/27 in the visitors first innings before Jim Allenby struck 78 before claiming 4/27 to put Glamorgan into the ascendancy.