Leicestershire fight to survive after Ingram epic
Colin Ingram’s 257 not out was 67 runs higher than his previous best in a 20 year career
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division Two, Sophia Gardens (day three)
Leicestershire 251 & 144-3: Rahane 47*
Glamorgan 550-9 dec (147 overs): Ingram 257*, Carlson 85; Holland 4-96, Ahmed 3-153
Leicestershire (3 pts) trail Glamorgan (6 pts) by 155 runs with seven second-innings wickets standing
Leicestershire go into the final day with seven wickets still standing as they battle to avoid defeat following an epic innings from Glamorgan’s Colin Ingram.
They resume on 144 for three, 155 behind with Test batters Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb together, after bad light shortened day three.
But the home side missed chances to get rid of both men and strengthen their position further.
Earlier Glamorgan batted on to reach 550 for nine, with Colin Ingram unbeaten on 257 to take his season’s average to 107.
Ingram’s knock was the ninth highest ever for the county and the fifth longest recorded in terms of time, lasting three minutes short of 10 hours.
The veteran South African showed his lasting class with 28 fours and a six, looking completely at ease after dropped chances on 62 and 64.
He added 132 with Mason Crane, unluckily run out for a patient 49, while Fraser Sheat hit a quickfire 34 before the declaration finally came just before lunch.
Leicestershire saw off Glamorgan’s opening spells before Dan Douthwaite made things happen, starting with a no-ball and conceding two boundaries in his opening over then trapping Rishi Patel lbw for 23.
On a cool and breezy afternoon, on-loan rookie Ned Leonard nipped one back to clean up Foxes’ captain Lewis Hill in the next over, and Timm van der Gugten’s second spell saw Ian Holland lob to point after a battling 27.
The key partnership of Rahane (47 not out) and Handscomb (33 not out) should have been broken when Rahane, on 32, fired return catches to Crane off successive balls but the leg-spinner inexplicably put both down.
To add to his woes in the autumnal gloom, Crane then spilled a difficult chance offered by Handscomb off Leonard on 26, as Rahane curbed his attacking shots before rain followed by bad light cut the evening session to 45 minutes.
Glamorgan’s Ned Leonard told BBC Sport Wales:
“We’re happy, we’ve hammered away at a good length and the pitch is doing enough (to help), it’s a bit up and down. Missed chances happen, but hopefully we can grab a few tomorrow and take the win.
“It was a good ball (to dismiss Hill) wasn’t it, hopefully we can create some more of those. We’re really confident of taking seven wickets if we bowl a good length and use the odd short ball.
“My ambition for the loan spell is just to play more first-class cricket, I’ve already learned a lot over the last couple of weeks from Timm who’s got a lot of knowledge to pass on.”
Leicestershire’s Peter Handscomb told BBC Radio Leicester:
“I thought it was a smart declaration (by Glamorgan) but we stuck at it and tried to restrict the runs to delay that declaration to give us a chance to save this game.
“They (Glamorgan) are putting the ball in the right areas and moving it, asking good questions and we’ll try to answer them as best we can and hopefully walk away with a draw.
“We’re 150 behind, so we’ll try to save the game first and see what happens.”