Glamorgan travel to Leicester for their opening match in the LV=County Championship for 2015 with the Welsh county meeting the East Midlands side in a four-day contest which is scheduled to start at the Grace Road ground at 11am on Sunday, April 12th.
Match Preview
Leicestershire ended 2014 at the bottom of the Division Two table, although they enjoyed the better of last year's contest at Grace Road against the Welsh county, with a stubborn partnership between Stewart Walters and John Glover helping Glamorgan to scramble a draw on the final afternoon.
The match at Leicester in 2013 was an altogether different affair as the home side were forced to follow-on only for the weather to intervene and save Leicestershire from defeat as the game ended in a draw. A similar scenario unfolded at the SWALEC Stadium last summer when bad light prevented Glamorgan from using their quicker bowlers against Leicestershire's tail-enders and allowed the East Midlands outfit to salvage a draw.
Glamorgan's most recent victory in a Championship match at Grace Road came in quite dramatic circumstances in May 2010, and all after the Welsh side had conceded a first innings deficit of 53 runs. Yet within 24 hours of being dismissed in their first innings, Glamorgan's seam bowlers had dismissed Leicestershire for just 71 with both James Harris and David Harrison taking four wickets in a masterly display of new ball bowling. Openers Gareth Rees and Mark Cosgrove then bludgeoned 198 runs inside 34 overs as Glamorgan romped to a ten-wicket victory.
Cosgrove is now leading the East Midlands side, with the match against his former employers, being his first in charge of the Grace Road side following his acquisition at the start of the new domestic season. Leicestershire have endured two barren seasons in Championship cricket, with their most recent success being in September 2012 when they successfully chased a target of 236 to defeat Gloucestershire, albeit by the slender margin of two wickets. Earlier that season in the opening round of county games in April, Leicestershire had also defeated Glamorgan by 52 runs at Grace Road.
As in 2014, Mark Wallace enters the opening Championship match on the verge of a notable career landmark. Last year the game at The Kia Oval saw the Glamorgan wicket-keeper appear in his 200
th consecutive County Championship game - this year Glamorgan's opening match in the four-day competition sees the long-serving cricketer enter the match with a career tally of 9,983 runs in all first-class cricket for the Welsh county, and when he scores a further 17 he will pass the outstanding career milestone of 10,000 runs in first-class cricket.
Team News
Glamorgan have named the following 12-man squad for their visit to Leicestershire: 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.