County Championship: Seamers put Worcestershire in control against Glamorgan

Jamie McIlroy's seven wickets in the match is his best Championship performance

Eighteen wickets fell in the day at New Road as Worcestershire claimed a first innings lead of 114 over Glamorgan, but then crashed to 127-8 in their second innings.

Jamie McIlroy took a career-best 4-27 to threaten the Pears' dominance.

Glamorgan never got to grips with the Worcestershire seamers as they were shot out for 170.

Logan van Beek claimed a best county performance of 4-42 and Dillon Pennington 3-43 on a tricky surface.

Worcestershire are still ahead in the game, but Glamorgan's late fightback gave them some hope of repeating their final innings chase of 2022, when they reached a target of 332, despite more challenging conditions this year.

Both sets of seam bowlers enjoyed themselves, getting some help from the pitch with variable bounce and movement aided by poor batting.

At the start of an eventful day, Joe Leach put Glamorgan under immediate pressure as he dismissed Eddie Byrom and Zain Ul Hassan early on, while nightwatchman James Harris fell to Pennington for 17.

Despite Worcestershire dropping four chances in the first session, Glamorgan were unable to profit as Sam Northeast edged Pennington to slip for seven and Jake Libby claimed a second catch to get rid of Colin Ingram for 30, Van Beek taking his first Pears Championship wicket.

Kiran Carlson was dropped twice and hit on the helmet on his way to 24, but drove debutant Ben Allison to cover straight after lunch.

Billy Root and Chris Cooke (38) provided the best partnership of the innings, adding 62 for the seventh wicket as they played some attacking shots without ever seeming quite in control.

But Cooke's departure was the end as numbers nine, 10 and 11 all registered ducks with Van Beek and Pennington cleaning up the tail.

Gareth Roderick fell first ball to McIlroy in the Pears' second innings, but Jake Libby (40) and Azhar Ali (39) added 81 in relatively untroubled fashion as Glamorgan, without injured strike bowler Timm van der Gugten, toiled in the first half of a marathon 50-overs evening session.

McIlroy returned to make the breakthrough as he found the edge of both men's bats and then had Jack Haynes caught at slip for 10 to register career-best figures.

The slide became a collapse as Harris and Ul Hassan picked up two wickets apiece with seven wickets falling for 40 in a remarkable reversal of fortunes.

The middle-order efforts were not helped by Adam Hose (16) and previous hero Van Beek both being bowled without playing shots.

Home skipper Brett D'Oliveira, the game's top scorer with his unbeaten 74 in the first innings, survived the closing overs alongside Leach.

Worcestershire assistant coach Kadeer:

"We were something like 190-200 for two in terms of a lead, but that last hour has really hurt us, and to lose seven wickets for 40 runs was really disappointing.

"We are still ahead in the game, still in a good position, but we missed an opportunity to be in a really strong position.

"At New Road seam has been quite difficult the whole year and, as soon as we lost a wicket or two, the momentum started to swing again.

"We know it's difficult to start as a batter but if you get in, then you've got to try and cash in. If we can exploit them with the new ball, it could be quite a challenging day for them as well.

Glamorgan assistant coach David Harrison told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's been a bit of a crazy day after we were a bit short in our first innings.

"I've never seen 50 overs in a session before, and on the hottest day of the year as well, but the way the three seamers bowled was magnificent, to give us half a chance in the game.

"Jamie has bowled really well all year and sometimes hasn't got the rewards he deserved on some pretty placed pitches, so it's richly deserved for him to get his wickets in this game.

"It's a hard wicket to start on, if you get in and get a bit of a partnership it's really important to cash in. Hopefully with a heavy roller and a bit of sunshine the pitch will be at its best, and we've got good memories from last year's chase."