County Championship: Brett D'Oliveira leads Worcs fightback against Glamorgan

Brett D’Oliveira is making a comeback after missing six One Day Cup games with a dislocated shoulder

Worcestershire captain Brett D'Oliveira led the way with 74 not out as his side fought back to reach 284 against fellow promotion contenders Glamorgan.

D'Oliveira shared a century stand with Logan van Beek after Glamorgan reduced them to 110-6 early in the afternoon.

Seamers Jamie McIlroy and James Harris claimed three wickets apiece for Glamorgan.

But the visitors lost top wicket-taker Timm van der Gugten, who limped off in his 17th over.

Glamorgan had two overs left to bat at the end of day one, and reached three without loss.

Netherlands international Van Beek was handed a Championship debut and Essex seamer Ben Allison a first on-loan appearance for Worcestershire, while Glamorgan gave a first Championship outing to teenage spin-bowling all-rounder Ben Kellaway.

With sun overhead and not much grass evident, it was slightly surprising when Kiran Carlson chose to bowl first, but their seamers found early movement to reduce the home side to 33-3.

Van der Gugten found the edge of Jake Libby's bat, Azhar Ali chipped McIlroy tamely to mid-wicket and Jack Haynes provided Chris Cooke with a second catch off James Harris (3-74).

Roderick and Hose threatened a counter-attack but fell for 43 apiece either side of Kashif Ali's dismissal, as Worcestershire looked in severe danger of being shot out cheaply.

But the D'Oliveira and Van Beek partnership allowed them to come back strongly, reaching 202-6 at tea.

Van Beek, who hit the headlines early in 2023 by hitting 30 and taking two wickets in a super-over shoot-out against the West Indies, went strongly for his shots to register his first red-ball half-century in five years.

He could make no further progress as he drove a return catch to Carlson, but D'Oliveira looked in fine touch on his return from a shoulder injury and found sterling support from the 6ft 6in Allison, who used his reach to strike some powerful blows in his 37.

In the absence of Van der Gugten, Allison dominated the stand of 64 for the eighth wicket before playing on to the persevering Harris, while former Pears academy player Zain Ul Hassan wrapped up the last two wickets leaving D'Oliveira stranded after a day of fluctuating fortunes.

Worcestershire's Logan van Beek said:

"We walked into those changing rooms this evening thinking 'cool, we are in the game with that score.' From the position we were in to get to that point is satisfying.

"It was actually quite tough. It felt like any ball could get you out at anytime. The ball never really came on as true as you would like.

"Brett and I were telling each other 'let's go one ball at a time and keep stacking it.' It was unfortunate we couldn't make it into a bigger score but we are pretty happy.

"It is satisfying to make an impact on a game straight away (on Championship debut) and that's what you want to do as a cricketer."

Glamorgan's Jamie McIlroy told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a really good day for the bowlers, the first change backed me and Timm up really well and though there was a partnership in the middle that got away from us a bit, it was a good day's work all in all.

"Bowling first was probably the best chance we've got to get a (positive) result, if you start as we did you create a chance to win the game.

"The pitch was a bit mixed, some balls stuck in the pitch with tennis ball bounce and the odd one died on its way through. We're hoping it's going to get better as it dries out.

"We don't know the extent of Timm's injury yet, he's going to be assessed over a couple of days but if we do lose him it's a massive blow. There could be a lot of overs for (the rest of) us but we're fit and ready to go for it."