Gareth Roderick hit his highest score in any form of cricket for Worcestershire on the opening day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens.
Roderick was promoted up the batting order into the number five slot and responded with an excellent 88 not out.
It surpassed the 76 he made against Essex in the Royal London Cup last month and followed on from his 53 not out in his previous Championship innings against
Derbyshire at New Road.
The 31-year-old held the innings together in another invaluable contribution for his side and batted for 222 balls and hit 11 boundaries.
Opener Ed Pollock laid some solid foundations with a responsible half century and then Roderick and Ed Barnard featured in the major stand of the day in adding 127 for the fifth wicket.
But a late flurry of wickets left the game evenly poised as Worcestershire closed on 285-7 from 96 overs.
Worcestershire, who were without injured Pakistan star Azhar Ali (hamstring), elected to bat after Club Captain, Brett D’Oliveira, won the toss.
A reshuffled batting line-up saw Gareth Roderick moving up to number five, with D’Oliveira at seven.
Jake Libby, Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer in the Royal London Cup, turned Michael Hogan off his legs for the first boundary and then off drove James Harris to the ropes.
But on 12 Worcestershire’s red ball vice-captain attempted to work Harris to leg and was lbw.
Taylor Cornall, who also enjoyed a successful Royal London Cup campaign, square drove Harris and turned Hogan off his hips for boundaries.
Pollock looked a composed figure, mixing defence with a series of fine drives and in addition he lifted van der Gugten over mid wicket for six, his 15th maximum of the season in Championship cricket.
The 50 came up in only 12.5 over in a positive start by Worcestershire.
But on 16 the left handed Cornall shouldered arms to Timm van der Gugten and was bowled.
Jack Haynes, in his first innings for Worcestershire since late July, advanced to 13 before he was leg before to a van der Gugten delivery which nipped back in.
Pollock continued to do the bulk of the scoring, cutting David Lloyd for four, and moving onto 40 out of 88-3 from 30 overs by lunch.
A push for two off van der Gugten enabled Pollock to complete a 100 ball half century but he added only four more before caught behind off the same bowler.
Roderick profited from a series of shots whipped off his legs for boundaries, including two off Harris on his return to the attack.
Barnard, Worcestershire’s leading run scorer this summer in the Championship, continued the form he has shown throughout 2022.
He twice collected two boundaries in the space of three deliveries, off Lloyd and Hogan, and a leg glance for his ninth four against New Zealand spinner, Ajaz Patel, brought up his half century from only 58 balls.
A back foot drive to the boundary off van der Gugten enabled Roderick to reach a hard fought 137 ball fifty and he was the perfect foil to Barnard.
The fifth wicket pair were relatively untroubled until Barnard, who went past 850 runs for the season, went to sweep Ajaz Patel in the final over before the second new ball was due and was lbw for 75 from 117 balls with 10 fours.
Harris and Hogan came back into the attack and each claimed a wicket with the new ball.
D’Oliveira (3) was given out lbw after pushing forward to Harris and Ben Cox (0), on his return to the Championship side, was bowled by Hogan.
But Roderick remained a rock solid performer and Joe Leach (16 not out) coming in at number nine in a strong batting line-up, scored freely.
