Glamorgan complete their batch of group games in the LV=Insurance County Championship by welcoming Northamptonshire to Sophia Gardens for a four-day contest starting at 1100 on Sunday, 11 July. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The East Midlands side, who were the victors when the two sides met earlier this summer at Northampton, were involved in a high-scoring encounter in 2019 at Glamorgan’s headquarters. The opening day of the contest saw three centurions in the home ranks as Marnus Labuschagne, Billy Root and Kiran Carlson each made hundreds with Glamorgan ending on 433-4. They duly declared the next day on 570-8 before Northamptonshire replied with 750 from 227.3 overs with Ricardo Vasconcelas and Rob Newton sharing an opening stand of 303.
Northamptonshire won the match at Sophia Gardens in 2018, thanks to some solid batting by their recently retired captain Alex Wakely, Ben Duckett (now with Nottinghamshire) and Luke Procter, supported by the subtle spin of Sri Lankan Seekuge Prasanna. They also won in 2017 at Cardiff by seven wickets after a feisty century from hard-hitting batsman Richard Levi plus a probing spell of seam bowling by the visiting attack with Richard Gleeson (now with Lancashire) claiming an eight-wicket match haul.
However, Glamorgan enjoyed the better of the Championship game at Cardiff in 2015 with a swashbuckling century by Craig Meschede plus some probing seam and spin bowling by the home attack forcing the East Midlands side to follow-on before Glamorgan eased to a comfortable ten-wicket victory. This is one of five victories by the Welsh county in 22 Championship matches against Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens, with their first success coming in 1978 when they dismissed the East Midlands side twice in a day to record a victory by an innings and 16 runs. Their other wins came in 1995 by three wickets, in 2000 by five wickets and in 2010 by an innings and four runs, whilst Northamptonshire have won six matches with eleven being drawn.