Rudolph, Cooke build strong advantage

Glamorgan pressed home their advantage on day two against Leicestershire. Resuming on 56 for 1 under blue skies at the SWALEC Stadium, having dismissed the visitors for a paltry 109 on a rain-affected opening day, the hosts reached 350 for 8 before declaring.

Opener Jacques Rudolph top-scored with 88 from 178 balls, and there were also decent contributions from Chris Cooke (58) and Jim Allenby (44). Trailing by 241 as they began their response, Leicestershire had limped to 6 for 1 by the close.

The visitors' one moment of joy on Sunday arrived after tea when Rob Taylor snared Glamorgan's debutant opener Tom Lancefield for 19, but if they had hopes of making early inroads on Monday then Rudolph and Will Bragg dictated otherwise.

The overnight pair extended their second-wicket partnership to 73 runs, Rudolph setting the tone by driving Taylor through the covers in the first full over of the day, before Bragg edged to Greg Smith at second slip off Charlie Shreck for 21.

That brought Ben Wright to the middle and he too built a respectable stand with South African Rudolph - the pair added 61 before the latter fell 12 runs short of his century, caught behind by wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien to become Shreck's second victim. Wright followed suit soon after when he nicked one from Nathan Buck into the hands of Smith in the slips.

Allenby and Cooke then joined forces and swiftly set about further stretching their team's advantage. Allenby struck six boundaries before being induced into a pull shot by Buck which saw him caught by Shreck at long leg six runs shy of his fifty.

Cooke continued apace, though, and - despite losing Mark Wallace, who nicked behind off Taylor for 18 after starting off with a couple of early boundaries - racked up his half-century to help the home side advance to 309 for 6 and a 200-run cushion. He departed with the score on 326, having smashed six fours in 101 balls, when he found Ramnaresh Sarwan off the bowling of Naik.

Dean Cosker went the same way in the very next over, also snapped up by Sarwan - Shreck this time the successful bowler. Michael Hogan and Will Owen helped Glamorgan to 350 after 105 overs, which guaranteed the hosts a fourth bonus batting point and prompted home captain Wallace to declare.

That left time for Glamorgan to have six overs on Monday evening, and they needed less than four to make the breakthrough. Tom Helm had Smith snapped up by Rudolph, with Leicestershire still needing 235 runs to avoid an innings defeat.