Glamorgan complete three-day win by eight wickets against Northants
Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Cardiff (day three)Northamptonshire 185: Procter 61; Fernando 3-28, Gorvin 3-36 & 304: Zaib 71, McManus 66, Procter 56; Fernando 3-42, Harris 3-99Glamorgan 424: Kellaway 95, Northeast 67, Van der Gugten 61, Carlson 54; Broad 3-82, Conway 3-99& 66-2: Tribe 32*, Northeast 27*; Sanderson 2-14Glamorgan (23 pts) beat Northamptonshire (3 pts) by eight wickets standing
Glamorgan completed a three-day win by eight wickets over Northants, taking the extra half-hour to seal the result after some dogged Northants defiance.Saif Zaib top-scored with 71 while there was lengthy resistance from Luke Procter (56) and Lewis McManus (66).Asitha Fernando and James Harris took three wickets apiece each as Northants were finally dismissed for 304, having been 239 behind.Glamorgan needed 66 to win in 12 overs of normal play, but Ben Sanderson claimed two quick wickets including Australian Test batter Marnus Labuschagne for just four.Asa Tribe and Sam Northeast steadied the ship and steered Glamorgan to a second successive victory after a poor start to the season while Northants were left to ponder their top-order struggles.
Northants fought hard throughout day three after starting 190 runs behind with three wickets already down.Captain Procter again dug in, but it was James Sales who dominated the stand of 53 as he took three boundaries in an over off the usually economical Timm van der Gugten.Sales, on 35, edged through to Chris Cooke in the Netherlands international's next over and Rob Keogh, in sketchy form, made a nervy start before edging Fernando behind for six to leave them 108-5.Zaib started brightly, lofting a couple of leg-side sixes while Procter ground on conscientiously, but the skipper's vigil was ended by Fernando switching angles and giving Cooke his third catch of the day.Another obdurate 50 stand followed between Zaib and Lewis McManus but Zaib edged James Harris to Sam Northeast at slip with the visitors still 17 in arrears, and Justin Broad chipped Van der Gugten's first delivery with the new ball to mid-wicket.McManus, Ben Sanderson and Harry Conway added 74 for the last two wickets before Harris and Fernando finished them off, courtesy of fine catches from Kiran Carlson and Cooke again.A target of 66 looked modest but Sanderson had other ideas as he had Zain Ul Hassan caught behind for two.Labuschagne got off a pair first ball, clipped his second just short of mid-wicket and was close to lbw on his third, before Sanderson found a thick edge and the Australian was left to bemoan a rare double failure. Tribe and Northeast calmly reduced the target to 26 by the end of the day's scheduled overs, and the umpires sensibly gave them the chance to finish it.Glamorgan have another home fixture to finish the Championship block against Middlesex on Friday 23 May, while Northants host Gloucestershire on the same day.
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