Glamorgan commence their campaign in the Specsavers County Championship as they welcome Northamptonshire to Sophia Gardens for a contest which is scheduled to start at 11am on Thursday, April 11th . (Gates open – 10am)
Northamptonshire won last year’s game between the two teams at Sophia Gardens, thanks to some solid batting by captain Alex Wakely, Ben Duckett (now with Nottinghamshire), Luke Procter and Ricardo Vasconcelas, supported by the spin of Sri Lankan Seekuge Prasanna as Glamorgan were set a target of 434 to win. Usman Khawaja top-scored with 38 as Glamorgan were dismissed for 200, leaving the East Midlands side the victors shortly before lunch on the final day.
Northamptonshire have been successful on their last three forays in Championship cricket on Welsh soil. In 2017 they won 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.
Ben Sanderson grabbed the headlines in 2016 when Northamptonshire won by Swansea by 251 runs, with the Yorkshireman returning career-best figures of 7/22 in Glamorgan’s second innings before going on to complete a ten-wicket match haul. He still features in the East Midlands attack which for 2019 has been augmented by West Indian captain Jason Holder
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