LEICESTER (first day of four; Glamorgan won toss)

Leicestershire 164-3, (HD Ackerman 89no, DS Harrison 2-40)

Under uniformly grey and grim clouds, no play was possible before lunch at Grace Road. Heavy downpours on Thursday evening left the ground still damp at the scheduled start and, though umpires George Sharp and Nigel Cowley inspected at noon, bad light would have prevented play then, anyway.

Lunch was taken at the normal time (1pm) with a second inspection to follow at 1.40. Since the toss has not yet been possible, teams have not been declared but James Harris, sitting his A levels, will definitely be absent for Glamorgan and Leicestershire, under their policy of rotating fast bowlers, may rest Garnett Kruger to give a game to Dan Rowe or Ryan Cummins (rare Englishmen in the side's massed South African ranks)

Tea

Having lost by an innings to the might of the veldt in its Northamptonshire guise, Glamorgan now confronted another five South Africans in their next championship match. They did the obvious thing by fielding first after a late start claimed 45 overs, but it was their misfortune to meet the in-form Hylton Ackerman.

A slow pitch of little bounce proved less helpful than hoped, and the seamers badly failed to strike a consistent length, but Matt Boyce, leg-before for two, soon fell in the second over. Ackerman, the veteran from Cape Town with three hundreds in eight championship innings already this year, led Leicestershire's revival. He reached 30 before Tom New had found his fourth run and, with Alex Wharf hammered out of the attack after three overs conceded 24, the pair had added an unbeaten 86 from 122 balls by tea.

Glamorgan showed two changes from their last Championship fixture, that defeat to Northamptonshire at Swansea. With James Harris revising for his A-level exams next week, Wharf returned to the side, whilst the extra seamer, Ryan Watkins, was unsurprisingly preferred to the second spinner, Dean Cosker.

Leicestershire, picking from full strength, made one change from their championship draw with Essex. They rested Garnett Kruger, in line with their stated policy of rotating fast bowlers, and gave 24-year-old, Glamorgan-born Dan Rowe his first championship start since the opening match of the season. It is his sixth appearance in all at this level

Close

New negotiated his way to the fourth over after tea with increasing authority only to fall disappointingly for 32 when caught in two minds by a rising ball from Watkins. Apparently shaping to pull or cut, he played the ball down rather limply and watched it roll back on to his stumps.

Joined by Boeta Dippenaar, Ackerman soon passed his fifty from 71 balls, while the still-wayward Wharf was soon replaced again, having returned 0 for 42 in seven overs.

Fifteen minutes from the close, Dippenaar's first mistake proved to be his last when, going backward, he lost off stump to David Harrison for 22. Harrison was the only bowler to extract occasional movement off the seam but he could not dislodge Nadeem Malik, the nightwatchman, who hung on to see out the day.