Glamorgan meet Northamptonshire in their next match in the Rothesay County Championship as they welcome the East Midlands team to Sophia Gardens for the four-day contest starting at 1100 on Friday, 16 May. (writes Andrew Hignell)
Glamorgan’s emphatic and record-breaking victory over Kent at Canterbury has lifted up the Welsh county into sixth place in Division Two, four points behind Northants whose stunning 70-run victory on Sunday against Lancashire has consolidated their position in fifth place, besides consigning the Red Roses to bottom spot in the table.
Last year’s contest between Glamorgan and Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens ended in a draw despite the Welsh county securing a first innings lead of 211 runs. Northants offered more resistance in their second innings before setting the home side a target of 262 in 39 overs. Marnus Labuschagne – who returns to Wales for this and the following game against Middlesex at Cardiff - led the chase with a 47-ball fifty, but with 100 needed from 77 balls, he skewed a ball into the hands of backward point. Others swiftly followed as Northants surged back into the game and, when Mason Crane departed, the visitors needed three wickets from 43 balls. But Timm van der Gugten and Harry Podmore dropped anchor as the enthralling game ended all square.
It had been a similar story in July 2021 when Northants visited Sophia Gardens and saw Chris Cooke and Kiran Carlson share an unbeaten fifth wicket stand of 307 as the Welsh county amassed a first innings lead of 247. Michael Neser made early inroads with the new ball, but rain interrupted the visitors second innings as the game ended in a draw. Glamorgan’s batters were also to the fore on the opening day of the contest at Cardiff in 2019 as Labuschagne, Carlson and Billy Root each made hundreds. Glamorgan 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 as the visitors eschewed setting up a run chase.
Northamptonshire won the match at Sophia Gardens in 2018, thanks to some solid batting by their captain Alex Wakely, Ben Duckett and Luke Procter, supported by the subtle spin of Sri Lankan Seekuge Prasanna. This is one of six successes for the East Midlands side in the 24 Championship matches staged between the two teams at Sophia Gardens, with their successes coming on their augural visit to the ground in 1967 and followed by further wins in 1976, 2003, 2006, 2017 and 2018.
In contrast, Glamorgan have been victorious on five occasions at their Cardiff headquarters with victories in 1978, 1995, 2000 and 2010 before their most recent success ten years ago after a swashbuckling century from Craig Meschede plus some probing seam and spin bowling by the home attack forced the East Midlands side to follow-on before the Welsh county eased to a comfortable ten-wicket victory.
As far as personal milestones are concerned, Marnus Labuschagne needs 143 runs to reach 12,000 runs in all first-class cricket, whilst Sam Northeast also needs 108 runs to reach the landmark of 14,000 runs in all first-class cricket. Zain ul Hassan requires 86 runs to reach 1,000 runs in first-class cricket, whilst Andy Gorvin needs 3 wickets for 50 first-class victims. Timm van der Gugten needs 2 more wickets for a career record of 300 wickets in all first-class cricket, whilst this will be Chris Cooke’s 150th and Kiran Carlson’s 100th appearance in all first-class cricket.