It was a run-laden opening day to the Championship summer at Sophia Gardens with Marnus Labuschagne and Billy Root each making debut hundreds – the first-ever time in the Club’s history that two batsmen had made maiden centuries for the Welsh county during the same innings.
In the final over of a remarkable day, Kiran Carlson became the third centurion as for the first time since 2005, the Glamorgan innings had three hundreds . On the most recent occasion, this feat had happened at Southgate with Dan Cherry, Jonny Hughes and David Hemp all making hundreds against Middlesex.
The feat of three hundreds in a day had been achieved once before - in August 11th 1990 - when, on the opening day of Glamorgan’s Championship match with Nottinghamshire at Worksop Town CC, Hugh Morris (110), Matthew Maynard (115) and Viv Richards (127) each scored hundreds.
In August 1999, there were three Glamorgan centurions in Glamorgan’s first innings against Nottinghamshire at Colwyn Bay, with Steve James scoring 259*, Jacques Kallis making 101* and Mike Powell completing a forthright 164. However, Glamorgan had batted second in this contest with James unbeaten overnight on 43* and Kallis on 24* before the batting carnage on the second day.
In September 2009 four Glamorgan batsmen made hundreds in their first innings against Surrey - Mark Cosgrove and Gareth Ress on the second day of the match with Jim Allenby and Mark Wallace following suit on the third day. With Chris Cooke, Graham Wagg and Marchant de Lange still to bat, perhaps they will equal that feat by plundering runs against a weary attack.
As far as records are concerned at the Cardiff ground, the only previous instances of three Glamorgan centurions at the Sophia Gardens ground had been in 1988 when Matthew Maynard, Ravi Shastri and Geoff Holmes each made centuries against Somerset, whilst against Durham in 1997 Steve James, Hugh Morris and Matthew Maynard all reached three figures.
Glamorgan rattled up 433/4 in 96 overs, equaling their record for the most runs on the opening day of a Championship match at their Cardiff headquarters established in their daffodil-golden summer of 1997 when they made 433 on the first day against Durham. Overall, it was their second highest tally on the opening day of a Championship match, beaten only by the 481 they amassed at Colwyn Bay in 2016 against Derbyshire.