Glamorgan v Derbyshire - day one report

Derbyshire fought back to leave Glamorgan 54 runs adrift, with two first-innings wickets remaining, on day one of the County Championship clash.

Simon Jones finished with figures of six for 45 from his 14 overs to help Glamorgan dismiss the visitors for 217 in their first innings. Glamorgan struggled to maintain their grip on the game as early breakthroughs from Dominic Cork were added to with the late dismissal of Adrian Dale for 56 to leave the Welsh side on 163 for eight.

Derbyshire knew that things could not get any worse after their lows of last season when they finished a long way adrift at the bottom of Division Two. They were hoping the acquisition of Andrew Gait, a powerful South African opener, could at least provide manager Colin Wells with a stronger batting line-up. Dominic Cork won the toss and decided to immediately put this to the test against a Glamorgan side who were looking to overcome the disappointment of relegation from the top flight.

Derbyshire's start was steady enough and in the fifth over Australian Michael Di Venuto hit three wonderfully-timed boundaries off compatriot Michael Kasprowicz. The first two came off successive balls and were almost identical cover drives, while the third was a powerfully-struck square cut following a shorter delivery.

The early lift Di Venuto had given his side was not to last long though. Following his three fours off Kasprowicz, Di Venuto's fellow opener Stephen Stubbings was trapped lbw off the first ball of the next over from Stuart Thomas after making four.

Gait joined the action with his side on 25 for one and a solid South African-Australian partnership was being built before Jones produced a full length ball which was edged by Di Venuto to wicketkeeper Mark Wallace. With Di Venuto gone for 38, Derbyshire's innings collapsed from 57 for two to 133 for six at lunch.

Jones' medium-pacers picked up the quick wickets of Dominic Hewson, for a duck, Luke Sutton (seven) and the vital breakthrough of Gait who, having reached 24, was starting to look settled.

While one of the new batsman to the crease, wicketkeeper Karl Krikken, was content to frustrate the bowling partnership of Jones and Thomas by blocking, Jason Kerr took the fight to Steve James' team with some flashing shots. It brought him a run-a-ball half century, but again Jones struck to put paid to Derbyshire's promise.

After Krikken was bowled for 20, having misjudged a Robert Croft delivery, Kerr followed, without any runs being added, when he dragged an inside edge onto the stumps. Croft and Jones, working in tandem, then wrapped up the Derbyshire resistance on 217 with the wickets of Lian Wharton and Graeme Welsh.

Cork soon pegged Glamorgan onto the back foot when he found a gap between David Hemp's bat and pad with his first delivery. Hemp's golden duck was followed up with the loss of James for 15 off the bowling of Kevin Dean as the Welsh side broke for tea on 39 for two.

After these early losses the Glamorgan batsmen continued to dismantle the good work done by their bowlers with Cork again claiming the scalps. The former England bowler picked up the wicket of Michael Powell (16) and then inflicted his second golden duck on Matthew Maynard. And Derbyshire's grip on the game was strengthened when Kerr got the two vital breakthroughs, bowling the confident-looking Dale for 56 before trapping Wallace for a duck.

The fluent Robert Croft was then bowled by Cork for 46 just before stumps to leave two fresh batsmen - Kasprowicz and Dean Cosker - both yet to score at close.

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Source: Ananova
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