County Championship: Glamorgan see off Worcestershire to claim first win of season

Jamie McIlroy of Glamorgan celebrates bowling Worcestershire all-rounder Matthew Waite

Glamorgan raced to their first win of the season inside two and a half days as they beat Worcestershire by 10 wickets.

Timm van der Gugten (5-48) picked up his third five-wicket haul of the season.

Worcestershire added 32 runs for the loss of their last three wickets on the third day.

Glamorgan openers David Lloyd and Eddie Byrom polished off the target of 79 in 20 overs.

The Welsh side dominated most of the match as their all-rounder Michael Neser proved a key figure, with early wickets and the game's top score of 86, amid speculation he could be added to the Australia squad for next month's Tests against India and England.

Worcestershire never recovered from collapsing to 34-6 on the opening morning as Glamorgan claimed smart slip catches on a slow pitch which rarely allowed the batters to feel on top.

Any remaining hopes of the Pears mounting a challenge disappeared quickly on Saturday when top scorer Matthew Waite played on to the first ball he received from Jamie McIlroy (3-36).

Josh Tongue (5) slashed Van der Gugten to point to complete the Dutch international's five-for.

Joe Leach then opened his shoulders to hit McIlroy for the first six of the match over the short grandstand boundary, but was bowled by James Harris for 24 to end the innings.

Leach seemed convinced he had trapped David Lloyd lbw as he conceded just five runs in a tight six-over spell which took the game into the afternoon.

Byrom and Lloyd went on the attack after lunch to finish the game at a gallop, with Byrom hitting Brett D'Oliveira for successive fours to reach his 50 and seal the win.

Glamorgan next face Sussex away on Thursday, 18 May, when Marnus Labuschagne and Neser will face Australia colleague Steve Smith.

Worcestershire, who have one win, two defeats and two draws so far this season, host Leicestershire on the same day.

Glamorgan's Timm van der Gugten told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's great to get the first win of the year, I think we've played really well and we were close against Yorkshire last week, so hopefully there's many more to come.

"As a unit we bowled really well, everyone deserved wickets. It was a bit up and down, and there wasn't a great deal of bounce, so you tend to bowl a bit on the shorter side and we got our rewards.

"The extra day off is going to help [the chances of facing Sussex], I want to play but I'll see how we are. It's going to be an exciting challenge against Sussex, they've got two of the best batters in the world and it would be nice to finish the red-ball stuff on a good note.

"I've probably bowled a bit more this season already [after the departure of Michael Hogan]. He would have been our go-to guy but I've enjoyed bowling with the new ball again and things have fallen my way."

Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard said:

"The bowling group carried on from their great work at Yorkshire and all four seamers contributed terrifically in the game.

"It was great to see Jamie McIlroy get some reward for his hard work, all four were superb and a shout out for Neser's batting as well.

"We're finding some rhythm and I'm very happy. If the weather hadn't intervened it would have been won two, lost one, drawn two.

"There are some tired bodies and we'll have to see how Timmy shapes up, hopefully we can get him fit enough for the Sussex game."

Worcestershire coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"No-one likes losing but we're disappointed with the performance. Throughout the season we've given ourselves chances but with this game we've never really given ourselves that opportunity.

"Fair play to Glamorgan who bowled really well at the front and put us under pressure, but you would hope we'd have absorbed that and got through it, but we didn't handle it as we would have liked and we have to learn from it.

"Our bowling before tea [on day two] was really disappointing, Joe bowled exceptionally well but didn't get the support. We dragged it back nicely but we always felt we were a bit behind the game and Michael Neser played an exceptional knock."