Northamptonshire slip to 79/5 before rain brings an early end to play at Cardiff

Cricket's a funny old game is a well-used adage, favoured by commentators and pundits alike to describe the unexpected or usual twists and turns during a game. Those present at tea at the SWALEC Stadium yesterday could barely have predicted what lay ahead in the final session of a day where 21 overs had been lost to rain. But the game changed dramatically in tempo as Glamorgan who were 150/6 at the interval following the departure of Graham Wagg to the final ball before tea, surged back into the game with a tsunami-like torrent of runs as Craig Meschede posted a career-best 107. Together with Chris Cooke and Ruaidhri Smith they added an astonishing 221 runs in the session to wrest the initiative away from Northamptonshire who at one stage looked like vindicating the decision of acting captain David Willey to bowl first.


The upshot of a session more akin to a Twenty20 contest was that Glamorgan ended on 371 and with night-watchman Mohammad Azharullah having played out an over from Michael Hogan, Glamorgan were eager to make swift inroads into a batting line-up missing Alex Wakely who was away on paternity leave. Whilst their Club captain was expecting an important delivery in the maternity wing of a hospital in Bedford, his colleagues were looking to profit from any wayward deliveries by the home attack. However, as events proved, there were few balls of this nature during another most eventful passage of play, leaving the visitors fighting to avoid the follow-on.


Graham Wagg and Michael Hogan duly resumed the bowling when play began on time with Azharullah clipping Wagg to fine-leg for four. There was also a curious incident to the third ball of the day when Northamptonshire were awarded five penalty runs as Colin Ingram caught the ball behind the stumps with one of Mark Wallace's gloves after the wicket-keeper had thrown off one of his gauntlets whilst chasing the ball down to the fine-leg boundary.


After a flurry of one's and two's, five wickets tumbled for as many runs in the space of 35 balls as Glamorgan moved into the ascendancy. The clatter of timber began with Hogan bowling Peters with an in-swinging Yorker. 28/1 then became 28/2 as next over Kyle Coetzer chipped the Australian to square-leg and two balls later it became 28/3 as Azharullah edged Meschede low to second slip where Jacques Rudolph took a fine catch diving to his left. One run later Meschede struck again as Rob Newton feathered a delivery into Mark Wallace's gloves.


Josh Cobb was them almost caught at short mid-wicket by Colin Ingram before Rob Keogh pulled Hogan for four. But Ruaidhri Smith then replaced the Australian and with his fourth delivery he had Keogh caught at second slip as Northants nosedived further to 33/5. Cobb then clipped Smith to mid-wicket and long-off as the fifty came up in the 22^nd over. Adam Rossington also struck a couple of off-drives for four before pulling a couple of short balls from Wagg to the mid-wicket boundary. He then greeted the return of Meschede by drilling him to cover point for four

Rain started to fall during lunch and prevented a resumption after the interval.With the rain still falling at 3.10pm, the umpires called for an early tea.

The light drizzle intensified around 4pm, and with the rain still falling at 4.45pm, the umpires called off play for the day.