Glamorgan 21 for 0 trail Northamptonshire 281 (Wakely 82, Levi 75, Vasconcelos 56, van der Gugten 5-45) by 260 runs
Scorecard
Timm van der Gugten claimed four wickets in 12 deliveries with the second new ball as Glamorgan came back strongly in the evening on day one of their Specsavers Championship match against Northamptonshire. Half-centuries from Ricardo Vasconcelos, Alex Wakely and Richard Levi helped Northants to reach 281 before Glamorgan's openers advanced to 21 without loss in reply.
Glamorgan's bowlers have had a habit in recent games of demolishing the opposing lower order. They took five wickets for five runs against Derbyshire last week, and here claimed the last five for six runs in 29 balls, van der Gugten finishing with 5 for 45.
Northants had no hesitation in batting first after winning the toss on another glorious day at Sophia Gardens, although they had a scare from the first ball of the game, when Luke Procter survived a huge shout for a catch behind the wicket off van der Gugten.
The opening stand was quickly broken, however, when Ben Duckett edged one in Michael Hogan's second over, and was well caught by Nick Selman one handed at second slip. Procter was then dropped at mid-off, but he fell shortly afterwards for 15 when he nicked Ruaidhri Smith's second ball to the wicketkeeper.
Vasconcelos, Northants' South African-born batsman, overcame a nervous start to play some handsome strokes through the offside, but also played and missed frequently against the seamers. He was eventually undone by van der Gugten, who got one to lift from a length and Vasconcelos' nick was well caught by Cooke diving away to his left. There then followed a productive partnership between Wakely and Levi, who played watchfully against an accurate Glamorgan attack.
Wakely was the first to pass 50, and he went on to reach his biggest score of the season, before he attempted to cut a ball from Smith, and was well taken at slip by Usman Khawaja. Eight runs later Northants lost their fifth wicket - Smith claiming his third - when Adam Rossington, driving away from his body, was caught in the gully.
Steven Crook then joined Levi in a useful partnership of 44 for the sixth wicket, before van der Hugten, armed with the new ball, made further inroads by bowling a double-wicket maiden. Levi went to the first ball of the over, when he was caught at second slip from a intended cut, then two balls later, Sri Lanka allrounder Seekkuge Prasanna skied an ambitious shot to mid-on.
Worse was to follow for Northants as Crook shuffled across his stumps and was out lbw to Hogan, with van der Gugten ending the innings quickly by having Ben Hutton brilliantly caught by Khawaja at slip, and bowling Ben Sanderson with his next ball.
