Worcestershire all-rounder Ed Barnard praised Gareth Roderick after his fine knock held the first innings together on day one of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens.
Roderick will resume on Tuesday morning on 88 not out after steering Worcestershire to 285-7 from 96 overs.
It is his highest score for Worcestershire in any format of the game and he continued his recent fine form in adding 127 for the fifth wicket with Barnard (75).
Barnard said: “It was nice to get a bit of a partnership with Gareth, it was a bit of a sticky situation when we came in, so it was nice to put some big runs on.
“The disappointing thing was to lose a few wickets at the end, the timing of my dismissal was pretty poor and something to look back on, but Joe (Leach) and Gareth did well to ride out that tough period at the end.
“Over the last six weeks you could see Gareth’s confidence start to change a little bit, and we know the player is in there.
“We’ve seen it before so for him to show it now for Worcestershire is really nice and he just continued that today and played really well.
“He played with a great tempo I thought, especially towards the end when it got quite tough and he soaked up the pressure to make it a lot easier for the other batters coming in.”
Barnard believes it will be important on this pitch to make the most of the new ball.
He said: “It is a new ball wicket. That showed in the evening session when they got the second new ball and it did a little bit.
“It was quite flat at times, didn’t do a lot sideways and there is not a lot of pace in it. But if you bowl well, there are balls in it.”
