A Tale of Three Sessions on Day One at Sophia Gardens
12 September 2021
Eddie Byrom’s hard fought 60 not out pulled Glamorgan out of an afternoon collapse on day one of their LV=Insurance County Championship clash with Gloucestershire.
The visitors took six quick wickets in the afternoon session following fifties from the opening pair of David Lloyd and Hamish Rutherford.
Tom Price was the pick of the Gloucestershire bowlers, finishing with figures of three wickets for 44 runs, but Byrom held firm to take his side to 264 for six at stumps.
Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to field on the first day at Sophia Gardens but were left frustrated in the opening session by openers Lloyd and Rutherford.
The visitors missed an early opportunity to break the promising partnership when Tom Lace dropped Lloyd in the slips off the bowling of Ryan Higgins.
The Welshman made Gloucestershire rue their missed opportunity as he kicked on to make 50 from 72 balls, including eight fours as Glamorgan headed into lunch at 107 for no loss.
Rutherford was next to bring up his half century as Glamorgan started where they left off after the interval.
But two quick wickets halted their progress as Higgins finally made the breakthrough. First, Lloyd edged to Ollie Price at second slip to bring an end to an impressive innings of 73 runs.
And Higgins’ Welsh Fire teammate David Payne then took the wicket of Nick Selman for just a single run four balls later to put a dent in the Glamorgan top order.
Jared Warner took the big wicket of Rutherford with a vicious delivery to take out his off stump after he scored 62 off 130 balls.
Byrom and Kiran Carlson went about rebuilding, but Carlson edged a Tom Price delivery to the bowler’s brother Ollie in the slips on 17.
After posting 136 without loss, Glamorgan’s four wickets fell for just 43 runs as the visitors continued to turn the screw before tea.
The collapse continued as Tom Price struck twice in quick succession to put his side on top.
Chris Cooke was his second victim when Price clipped the bails before he trapped Dan Douthwaite lbw for a duck for Gloucestershire’s sixth wicket of the afternoon session.
Byrom came in and offered some much-needed stability alongside Andrew Salter for the home side in just his second game for the county as he posted 60 not out off 183 balls to see them through to stumps.
Tom Price said:
“Glamorgan got off to a very good start, we were pretty disappointed with how we bowled, we didn’t build enough pressure.
“David Payne and Ryan Higgins set the tone after lunch and then Jared [Warner] and Zafar [Gohar] built more pressure which led to wickets. We dragged back some momentum, but Eddie Byrom and Salter batted well at the end with the new ball. It’s in the balance.”
Latest news
