Glamorgan hold out for draw with Leicestershire

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Sophie Gardens, Cardiff (day four)

Glamorgan 440: Crane 99, Carlson 95, Dickson 90 & 137-2: Tribe 67*

Leicestershire 586-7 dec: Tattersall 112, Weatherald 104 ret hurt, Cox 68*

Glamorgan (12 pts) drew with Leicestershire (14 pts)

Match scorecard

Glamorgan comfortably held out for a draw on a placid pitch in Cardiff, despite Leicestershire taking a first-innings lead of 146 in the battle of the promoted sides.

That left the visitors a potential 69 overs to bowl Glamorgan out, but the hosts had little difficulty in reaching 137-2 when the teams shook hands on the draw at 17:00 BST.

England Lions opener Asa Tribe led the resistance with 67 not out.

Earlier Leicestershire piled up 586-7 declared with Jonny Tattersall hitting 112 and Ben Cox finishing on 68 not out.

But the hybrid surface did not prove conducive to fast scoring for most batters in the match despite the high scores, with a lack of entertainment on offer for long periods and Foxes coach Alfonso Thomas declaring himself not impressed.

Leicestershire started the day with a lead of 60 but started slowly as Glamorgan were content with a holding operation in the field, Kiran Carlson and Andy Gorvin keeping it tight.

Tattersall reached his first Leicestershire century, in his second game since moving from Yorkshire, off 191 balls and including just six fours.

But he quickly fell, caught off Carlson, when he tried to open his shoulders having put on 104 with Ben Cox.

Cox recorded his third score of 50-plus in consecutive innings, including 162 against Surrey, but although Ben Green fell quickly swinging at Gorvin, there was no concerted flurry of shots before the declaration at 12:32 BST with 69 overs left.

Australian opener Jake Weatherald did not resume his innings for Leicestershire after suffering cramp and retiring on 104, with the team not needing his batting services or a permanent replacement in the match.

Eddie Byrom's scratchy form continued as he fell lbw to Josh Davey for five, but Zain Ul Hassan patiently soaked up 80 balls for 29 before playing no shot to Ben Green and chopping on to his stumps.

But eight wickets in the final session looked a tall order for the Foxes bowlers and so it proved, despite a fierce spell of short-pitched bowling from paceman Josh Hull which saw Carlson struck painfully in the ribs.

Tribe was largely untroubled after surviving some early difficulty against the spin of Ajaz Patel, while Carlson finished on 28 not out as very occasional spinner Stevie Eskinazi got a chance to turn his arm over along with Rishi Patel.

Glamorgan and Leicestershire both have two draws and a defeat from their opening three games back in the top flight, with the Foxes extending the points gap between them to five.

Leicestershire host champions Nottinghamshire in the next round starting on Friday 1 May, while on the same day Glamorgan begin a rare Championship visit to Hampshire.

The fitness of key all-rounder Ben Kellaway, who suffered a hip injury against Nottinghamshire, is being closely monitored as he returns to training, but he looks likely to miss the trip to Southampton.

Glamorgan coach Richard Dawson told BBC Sport Wales:

"If they were going to come hard with the bat this morning, we might have been on the back foot but the way we were bowled yesterday to hold the game, we did a hell of a job.

"The pitch wasn't what we expected, it was a different game from what we had planned for, I suppose it was challenging in a different way.

"Our last game against Notts, we played well in patches but we wanted to bounce back and we know Leicester play hard cricket, they put runs on the board and we've both come away with what we probably deserved.

"Ben Kellaway did a bit of running this morning, did some fielding and had a hit so he's progressing nicely, he's adding more to his rehab."

Leicestershire coach Alfonso Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester:

"The bowlers were absolutely superb to bowl 140-odd overs and only go for three (runs) an over, I thought was a phenomenal effort in quite hot weather in England (Wales) for the time.

"In terms of the wicket, I wasn't impressed, it's not conducive to four-day cricket, if I was coming to watch that I don't think I'Il be queueing to come back next week.

"For me, being a (former) bowler there's got to be a fair contest between bat and ball, and that had boring draw written all over it by the end of day two.

"We haven't played a lot of four-day cricket on hybrids, but if that's how they're going to play I certainly wouldn't be an advocate for Callum (Lewin, head groundsman) to do it at Grace Road."