County Championship: Budinger and Ahmed hit tons for Leics v Glam

Resuming on 305-5, Glamorgan hit early trouble as Green removed Colin Ingram and Timm van der Gugten with his third and fourth balls of the day.

Mason Crane fell for a single, and Tom Scriven had James Harris caught at mid-on for five.

But Glamorgan scrambled a third batting point off the last available ball as Chris Cooke (30 not out) smacked a straight boundary before Ned Leonard (16) provided Peter Handscomb with his sixth catch, off Chris Wright.

Leicestershire reached 36 without loss before lunch despite Budinger being denied a boundary when Ul Hassan lost control of the ball before his delivery and Budinger whacked it to the boundary, only for 'dead ball' to be ruled.

With hundreds of local schoolchildren present, a mascots race in the interval caused great excitement.

But there were fireworks on the field soon afterwards as Budinger hit top gear with his assault on the Glamorgan bowling, immediately attacking leg-spinner Mason Crane, while Patel played a more elegant and conventional knock at the other end.

It was a sharp contrast to Glamorgan's struggle to accelerate on the first day against the Kookaburra ball.

Budinger, 25, passed his previous best of 87 with a pull shot off Timm van der Gugten that sped to the boundary off Leonard's fingertips, then hoisted the Dutch international for six.

The nervous nineties were nowhere to be seen as Budinger lofted Crane over long-on to reach his ton with his third maximum off just 92 balls.

He also had 17 fours next to his name by the time he chipped Ul Hassan to cover, with the seamer shortly afterwards having Patel caught by Chris Cooke, having hit nine fours and a six in an innings that would have deserved more of the spotlight on most days.

After 198 runs came in the afternoon session, Ahmed, playing just as a batter because of a minor side problem, continued with his own aggressive approach after tea as he and Hill forced the field to scatter far and wide.

Ahmed punched his way to 106 off 118 balls, hitting 14 fours and two sixes, before eventually lofting the labouring Crane to mid-wicket.

With Hill giving the bowlers little chance at one end, Leicestershire strangely sent in Chris Wright as night-watchman, and he picked up four boundaries to rub salt into Glamorgan wounds.

Leicestershire's Sol Budinger told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I'll admit to being very emotional when I got the century, because it's been a while coming. I'd been playing alright in the last few weeks before the T20 block without going on to three figures, so it was in my mind a bit and now I've got there I can relax, because the pressure has been lifted.

"They bowled pretty well before lunch, but Rishi and I played our natural game and it was good fun out there.

"I've been trying to work on going up and down the gears, but basically I'm just trying to keep it as simple as possible, play proper cricket shots and respect the good balls.

"The way Rehan played, you can see his maturity and the way he loves batting. We've got ourselves into a decent place but it's only two days and there's a lot of cricket to be played."

Glamorgan's Zain Ul Hassan told BBC Sport Wales:

"No doubt it was a tough day, they put us under the pump straightaway and losing five wickets wasn't the ideal start, then they batted well in good conditions.

"We tried to keep it simple on such a good wicket with the Kookaburra ball, just tried to be as boring as possible and make the batters come to you.

"We're behind the eight-ball, so we've got to come back and show a lot of character, fight hard again."

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