Robson, Eckersley give Leicestershire signs of life

Leicestershire's quest for a first County Championship victory since September 2012 is set to be extended by at least another week, but with Ned Eckersley and Angus Robson ushering their team to 202 for 1 at the close of the second day at Grace Road, the first signs of a team beginning to emerge from hibernation were robustly in evidence.

The county can do little but clutch to the positives at the moment, but with Wasim Khan, their ambitious and personable new chief executive pulling the strings and rebooting the club's culture, the only feasible way is up. And as Eckersley and Robson, with a combined age of 48, capitalised on a docile pitch and a bright evening session to add 169 for the second wicket, they answered the call for character to help haul the club out of adversity.

But there is a long way to go yet and it is a measure of the side's struggles that they conceded 513 in Glamorgan's first innings despite enjoying one of their better days with the red ball in recent months.

Glamorgan resumed under heavy cloud cover on 294 for 2, with Will Bragg in situ after registering a hundred on the first evening. But when Atif Sheikh, armed with the new ball, swung the second ball of his spell into Bragg's pads to trap him lbw for 120, it set up an all-action session in which five wickets fell for 86 in 17 overs - evidence both of Leicestershire's wicket-taking ability but also of the naivety of their five-seamer attack.

Charlie Shreck burst a full delivery through a loose drive from Colin Ingram before Ollie Freckingham bent an inswinger into Mark Wallace's pads for 10. Graham Wagg and Chris Cooke both then fell in the space of four balls, the latter to a flappy drive that Eckersley pouched at short cover, and at 396 for 7, Leicestershire were in the relative ascendancy.

But then they lost their way, as David Lloyd, the 22-year-old allrounder, marshaled the tail with a maiden half-century, and by the time Andy Carter, all 6'7" of tail-end levers, started retreating to square leg to swish his own highest score of 21 not out, Leicestershire were denied the rare comfort of claiming all ten wickets in an innings.

But their response was brimful of character, as the day's aggregate run tally was hoisted to a hefty 421, for only the loss on their part of Dan Redfern.