MATCH REPORT: Bailey five-fer gives Lancs edge on Day One in Cardiff
Lancashire took control over Glamorgan with early wickets on day one of the final Rothesay County Championship match.
Tom Bailey took a five-wicket haul including a wicket with the first ball of the game to reduce Glamorgan to 114 for 6 at lunch before an 82-run seventh-wicket partnership kept the visitors at bay until finally wrapping up the innings on 265 with 20 overs remaining in the day.
Personal milestones of a half-century in Timm van der Gugten’s 100th match, Kiran Carlson’s 1000-run season and Mason Crane’s highest season knock of 42 negated the early morning worries although not enough to concern Lancashire from their favourable match position.
With both clubs’ fate decided already, Glamorgan were confirmed second after a rain-affected round of fixtures with promotion confirmed by the ECB’s latest update on the 2026 season. Meanwhile Lancashire, currently in sixth, can rise to third if results go their way.
Suffering from a promotion celebration hangover, unable to further their season success to be title champions, Glamorgan’s 2025 fatigue, efforts or care for the final game in late September might had been summarised by Zain Ul Hassan being bowled bizarrely around his legs at 10.29am – exposing Sam Northeast at the earliest possible moment in his final Glamorgan match.
With James Anderson absent via a side strain sustained last time out, Jake Blatherwick was given new ball duties under Josh Bohannon and didn’t take long to reduce Glamorgan to 20 for 2, Asa Tribe, even in his remarkable purple patch, unable to do much to one nipping away.
Blatherwick’s success ended there, and Tom Aspinwall struggled as Lancashire depended on repeating spells from Bailey and George Balderson who reduced Glamorgan to six wickets down inside the first session.
Carlson scored typically quickly to reach 22 where he raised his bat for a seasonal landmark before being removed and Chris Cooke put up a fight with a start both sides of lunch in what was a session dictated mostly by poor shots to explain the scoreline than anything else.
Van der Gugten and Crane’s resistance showcased Lancashire’s seasonal frustrations with ball most. Tom Hartley struggled to get purchase, and with Aspinwall conceding at seven an over for the most part, including two overs in excess of 15 each, it was down to crop-rotation waiting for something to happen.
Bailey fittingly finished the innings off after a wicket in each of his opening overs of his first three spells, putting himself ahead of Balderson in the top seasonal wicket-taker bragging rights on 37.
Having taken longer to finish the job than hoped or expected from a Lancashire perspective it fell to Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells to ensure an unscathed final 20 overs of the day rather than making an indent into the Glamorgan total.
The left-handed duo stood strongly against early movement from Van der Gugten before a flourish of boundaries from Jennings to close the day unbeaten on 55.