A beautiful century from Glamorgan’s Ben Kellaway against Warwickshire adorned an enthralling opening day of their Rothesay County Championship match at Edgbaston.

Glamorgan, put in, lurched to 0 for 2 in five overs but ended the day on 341 for eight thanks to Kellaway’s 139 from 242 balls with 18 fours and a six. His third first-class century, it oozed quality, first digging his side out of a deep hole and then expanding into exquisitely-timed strokes.

The 22-year-old added 194 in 52 overs with captain Kiran Carlson (85, 156) for the third wicket but Warwickshire hit back hard with the second new ball, taking four wickets in 25 balls through Olly Hannon-Dalby (three for 46) and Ethan Bamber (three for 61).

Glamorgan suffered a stressful start after their openers perished for ducks in contrasting fashion. Both were caught by wicketkeeper Alex Davies but while Asa Tribe was culpable, flashing at a wide ball from Hannon-Dalby, Zain-ul-Hassan was blameless as he nicked a perfect outswinger from Bamber.

It appeared that the thousands of schoolchildren enjoying a visit to Edgbaston could witness some history. At that point, the projected score was Glamorgan 0 all out after 25 overs with Hannon-Dalby and Bamber harvesting figures of 13-13-0-5 and 12-12-0-5 respectively. Kellaway and Carlson had other ideas.

After their 377-run win over Yorkshire last week, and that storming start, Warwickshire’s momentum could not have been higher, but the third-wicket pair faced it down with composure and concentration. They negotiated the new ball, saw their side through to lunch at 91 for two and advanced into the afternoon, Carlson reaching his half-century from 95 balls and Kellaway his from 100.

As the ball softened, Warwickshire’s accurate seamers still applied pressure, Hannon-Dalby and Beau Webster delivering five maidens in eight overs, but only when they turned to the spin, in the 56th over, did the breakthrough come. Carlson went down the track to Dan Mousley and inside-edged a drive onto his pad to send the ball looping to slip.

Kellaway continued on his fluent way, on-driving Jordan Thompson for a luscious four then flicking him effortlessly into the Hollies Stand on his way to a 185-ball century. Colin Ingram fell to the first ball after tea, nicking a careless waft at Ed Barnard, but Kellaway and Sean Dickson (33, 56) added 73.

Then came the second new ball from which Rob Yates took his 16th, 17th and 18th catches of the season at second slip. They disposed of Dickson and Timm van der Gugten, off Bamber, and Kellaway who copped a devilish lifter from Hannon-Dalby. When the former Yorkshire seamer removed Chris Cooke lbw, offering no stroke, an engrossing, fluctuating day had evened right up by the close.