Glamorgan vs Northamptonshire ends in a nail-biting draw with Glamorgan 207/8.
DAY 4 REPORT
Glamorgan held on for a nail-biting draw which earned them 15 points and fourth place in the Vitality County Championship Division 2 table.
Northamptonshire came close to pulling off a comeback win thanks to a career best 168 from Lewis McManus and wickets for Alex Russell and Liam Patterson-White.
Northamptonshire declared on 472 for eight to leave Glamorgan a target of 262 in 39 overs. The home side made a good go of chasing down the stiff target with Marnus Labuschagne scoring his second fifty of the match but late wickets left Northamptonshire a chance of pulling off victory.
Having been 211 runs behind on first innings, Northamptonshire had nine catchers around the bat in the closing overs as they pushed for the win but Glamorgan held on to finish 207 for eight with Northamptonshire two wickets short of victory.
Northamptonshire resumed their second innings just 25 runs in front of Glamorgan but their biggest partnership of the match extended that lead significantly. Luke Procter and McManus shared a stand of 161 that lasted past lunch on the last day.
Glamorgan were hampered in their pursuit for wickets by the absence of James Harris who was off the field with a quad injury. In the absence of Harris, Marnus Labuschagne came on to bowl seam and generated some decent pace, albeit without managing a breakthrough. He also sent down a few overs of leg spin once the shine was off the new ball.
The first wicket of the day came in the second session when Timm van der Gugten trapped Procter for 98, the second Northamptonshire batter to get out in the nineties in this innings after Ricardo Vasconcelos fell for 99 late on day three.
Lewis McManus had past his hundred from 150 balls just before the fall of Procter’s wicket and he looked to be more attacking once he had reached his milestone, scoring at better than a run a ball as he looked to set a target for Glamorgan to chase.
McManus passed 150 for the first time in first class cricket and took four consecutive sixes off Crane in the last over before Northamptonshire declared to leave Glamorgan needing to score at seven an over to win.
Glamorgan were 30 for one at the tea break and after the interval they made a real push to keep the required rate under control, but that desire for quick runs brought about the demise of Billy Root when Labuschagne called him through for a very sharp single and both batters ended up at the same end.
Carlson and Labuschagne kept up the intensity in their stand of 62 from 57 balls. Carlson was bowled by Alex Russell when he attempted a big shot to the shorter boundary on the Grandstand side of the ground.
Labuschagne looked very keen to secure a win in his last home game in the Championship this season but he chipped a catch to point off the bowling of Liam Patterson-White for 64.
Chris Cooke continued to attack but he fell for 27 looking to hit Russell over long off. Mason Crane was dismissed for a duck and Harry Podmore was bowled for 1 as Northamptonshire continued the late push to complete the comeback but Timm van der Gugten saw out the last over to secure the draw.
DAY 3 REPORT
Glamorgan kept their hopes of victory alive in their Vitality County Championship match against Northamptonshire in Cardiff thanks to two wickets from Mason Crane in the final session.
Glamorgan had extended their first innings lead to 211 thanks to late order runs from Crane, James Harris and Andy Gorvin allowing them to add to their overnight total.
A score of 99 from Ricardo Vasconcelos and 55 not out from Luke Proctor saw Northamptonshire claw themselves back into this match but the wickets from Crane pushed Glamorgan back into the stronger position.
Northamptonshire will begin the final day of this match on 236 for four, just 25 runs in front with six second innings wickets in hand. They will be hoping for another partnership to help them save this game but Glamorgan will be looking for early wickets so they can push for the win.
Glamorgan resumed 111 runs in front of Northamptonshire and Mason Crane and James Harris set about extending that in the opening hour. Crane is having his best season as a batter in first class cricket. He made the second half century of his career, the first coming in the away fixture against these opponents earlier in the season.
Crane and Harris shared a stand of 63 that took Glamorgan into a sizeable lead, but the concern for the home side would have been the ease with which their lower order were scoring runs. The prodigious seam movement that was a feature of the first two days had all but disappeared and the final wicket stand between Crane and Andy Gorvin put on another 53 runs to take Glamorgan to 490 all out.
Northamptonshire’s innings had a solid start thanks to a stand of 59 between Emilio Gay and Ricardo Vasconcelos. Gay was dismissed by Gorvin when he edged through to Chris Cooke for 24. Prithvi Shaw had made it to 23 before he edged a low catch to Cooke to leave Northamptonshire 95 for two.
Vasconcelos was steady throughout but as the day progressed the odd ball did misbehave. There were one of two balls from the Glamorgan seamers that bounced more than he expected but it wasn’t until the final session of the day that there seemed to be a real threat with the ball thanks to Crane’s leg spin. He bowled a long spell in the evening session where the ball began to turn.
The stand between Procter and Vasconcelos took Northamptonshire exactly level with Glamorgan when Crane made the long-awaited breakthrough when he trapped Vasconcelos LBW for 99. When Crane had Rob Keogh caught at short leg first ball Northamptonshire were four wickets down in their second innings and exactly level with Glamorgan’s first innings score.
Procter and Lewis McManus took Northamptonshire to the close without any further damage but there is still a long way to go before the visitors can consider this game safe.
DAY 2 REPORT
Marnus Labuschagne top-scored with 93 as Glamorgan took control of their Vitality Championship match against Northamptonshire in Cardiff. Glamorgan reached the close on 390 for eight, 111 runs in front of Northamptonshire’s first innings total.
Kiran Carlson made 71 and Chris Cooke scored 58 as Glamorgan set about building a match winning lead.
Northamptonshire had a couple of chances that went begging and a few close LBW shouts that were unsuccessful, but Glamorgan maintained control for most of the day. Luke Procter’s three for 36 was the best return for the visitors.
Glamorgan will resume tomorrow with two first innings wickets in hand and will be hoping to continue their push for a second Championship victory of the season.
Glamorgan began day two on 36 without loss and Billy Root and Eddie Byrom did a good job at blunting what was left of the new ball threat with a stand of 63. It was the introduction of the left arm spin of Liam Patterson-White that brought about the first wicket when Byrom edged his second ball to Privthi Shaw who took a sharp catch at first slip.
Root was dismissed by Justin Broad when he was trapped LBW by a ball that nipped back into him to leave Glamorgan 85 for two. From there Labuschagne and Kiran Carlson batted brilliantly for a stand of 140 that took Glamorgan towards parity with Northamptonshire’s first innings.
Labuschagne and Carlson were busy throughout their stand and ran well to put pressure on the Northamptonshire fielders, scoring at 4.5 runs an over. Labuschagne looked certain to make it to his 10thGlamorgan hundred, but he was also trapped by a Broad in swinger that hit him in front of the stumps when he was on 93.
Sam Northeast hit his first ball to the boundary for four, but he edged Luke Procter behind three balls later. When Carlson fell for 71 Glamorgan had lost three wickets for 42 runs and were in danger of surrendering the strong platform they had built for themselves. With a relatively long tail in this match they needed some lower order support to take them into the lead.
Timm van der Gugten was promoted to seven and his stand with Chris Cooke put on 68 runs and took Glamorgan into the lead. Van der Gugten was the aggressor, making 41 of those runs from 63 balls. His innings came to an end when he edged the new ball to the keeper McManus off the bowling of Procter.
At the fall of van der Gugten’s wicket Glamorgan were 56 runs in front, a useful lead but not yet a match defining one. Cooke went some way to putting Glamorgan into a winning position with a 120 ball fifty with support from James Harris.
Cooke fell in the closing stages of the day, but Harris and Mason Crane got Glamorgan to the close with the lead past three figures. Pitches in Cardiff have often flattened out as the match progresses, but Glamorgan are far enough in front to think they can push for victory.
DAY 1 REPORT
A well-constructed half century from Emilio Gay was the mainstay of Northamptonshire’s batting efforts in the first day of their Vitality County Championship match in Cardiff. Having won the toss and elected to bat first Northamptonshire reached 279 all out with runs for Luke Procter and Gus Miller helping them to recover from a middle order collapse.
Three wickets a piece for Timm van der Gugten, Andy Gorvin and James Harris were the highlight for Glamorgan with the ball but with Northamptonshire having been 195 for seven they will feel they let their opponents back into the game.
Glamorgan had seven overs to face before the close and they reached 36 without loss, 243 behind on first innings.
Northamptonshire won the toss and chose to bat but were pegged back early on by two wickets for James Harris. The first was Ricardo Vasconcelos who was bowled for 7. Harris claimed his second wicket in his next over when Prithvi Shaw edged a ball to Sam Northeast at first slip to leave them 19 for two.
Gay continued his fine form with a patient and well-made 65 that included some lovely drives through the off side. He shared a stand of 90 with Luke Proctor with the pair doing well against a Glamorgan seam attack that got the ball to move laterally throughout the day.
Gay was dismissed by one of those moving deliveries when he edged Andy Gorvin to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip to leave Northamptonshire 109 for three. A stand of 48 between Proctor and Rob Keogh took the visitors past 150 before both departed at the start of a spell that saw Northamptonshire lose four wickets for 28 runs.
Glamorgan’s bowlers were fantastic in the period before the tea break and made things very difficult for the batting side. There was a spell in the afternoon in which Lewis McManus faced 20 balls from Timm van der Gugten and he played and missed at eight of them, but it was Gorvin who trapped him lbw for 19.
Liam Patterson-White combined with debutant Miller for a stand of 37 that slowed the Glamorgan progress, but Patterson-White chipped a ball from Gorvin to Eddie Byrom at point for 30 with Northamptonshire still 18 runs short of claiming their first batting bonus point.
Miller and Raphael Weatherall managed to take Northamptonshire past 250 to claim their first point of the game as the old ball became a little easier to score against. Even after Glamorgan took the second new ball Miller continued to impress in his maiden first class match. His 40 included the only two sixes of the innings as he helped his team to what could prove to be a challenging total on this pitch.
Eddie Byrom and Billy Root successfully saw out the seven overs that were left to bowl at the end of the day without too many alarms as the inexperienced pair of Miller and Weatherall didn’t get the same movement that Glamorgan managed with the ball. They will be hoping that changes when the game resumes on Monday morning.