By Edward Hall
May 9 2002

The pattern of the second day followed very closely to that of the opening day’s play in this Championship game, with Glamorgan fighting back in the afternoon to leave the match in the balance at New Road. Worcestershire, resuming on 29 for 0, were in complete control of the game by the afternoon, with Anurag Singh and Stephen Peters putting on 156 for the first wicket. When Darren Thomas had Singh caught at the wicket for 81, you would have expected Worcestershire’s impressive looking middle-order to put their team in a position of dominance by the close. Graeme Hick and Ben Smith, the two men most associated with putting teams into winning positions, both failed as Thomas picked up three quick wickets. Thomas, part of a four man bowling attack, picked up Peters, Singh and Hick within quarter of an hour, and by clean bowling Gareth Batty and Kabir Ali towards the end of the innings, finished with his first five-wicket haul of the season. There was more good news from the bowling point of view, when Michael Kasprowicz snared Australian counterpart Andy Bichel to collect his maiden first-class wicket for Glamorgan, after going wicketless against Derbyshire. Kasprowicz even allowed himself the luxury of a second wicket when he clean bowled Sheriyar, to end the Worcestershire innings with the score on 298, a slender first-innings lead of 12.

Steve James and David Hemp completed a good afternoon’s work, putting on 38 runs in the 13 overs that were possible before the close.