ED Barnard’s defiant century and stunning early bowling from Joe Leach ensured Worcestershire enjoyed a productive opening day to their County Championship match with Glamorgan at New Road.

The visitors won the toss and decided to bowl, a decision that proved a good one as they took five wickets inside the opening 20 overs to reduce Worcestershire to 63-5.

But Roderick (46) and Barnard (131) dug deep and plugged away to drag the Pears to a reasonable total of 271 all out.

The returning Joe Leach then took three wickets inside the opening three overs of the Glamorgan innings as the visitors ended the day 32/3.

Having just come off the back of two heavy defeats in the Vitality Blast, Worcestershire returned to the red-ball game with promotion still very much a possibility.

But victory here was necessary and when Ed Pollock (0) was clean bowled by Michael Neser with the first ball of the day, things started to look bleak.

The mood was worsened just two overs later as Jake Libby (4) was caught by Tom Cullen off the bowling of Michael Hogan.

Azhar Ali (21) and Taylor Cornall steadied the ship slightly before the former played at a David Lloyd delivery and was caught by Cullen.

Captain Brett D’Oliveira (3) was trapped LBW by James Harris and Cullen had his third catch when Cornall edged Lloyd.

At 63/5, Worcestershire were on the ropes but Barnard and Roderick put on 120 to salvage the innings.

Roderick went for 46 when bowled by Harris before Joe Leach (12) and Josh Baker (10) were caught off Michael Hogan and Harris respectively.

The hosts were then all out for 271 as Charlie Morris (5) and Dillon Pennington (3) were the last to fall.

It was a decent enough first innings score for the Pears but they turned an average day into a good one as Joe Leach removed David Lloyd (4), James Harris (8) and Colin Ingram (4) inside the first three overs before Glamorgan reached the close on 32/3.