Labuschagne leads the way as Glamorgan take control against inexperienced Northants

Australian international star Marnus Labuschagne top-scored with 93 as Glamorgan took control of the match to reach the close on 390 for eight, 111 runs in front of John Sadler's side.

Kiran Carlson made 71 and Chris Cooke scored 58 as Glamorgan set about building a match winning lead.

Northants, who are fielding a very inexperienced bowling attack, had a couple of chances that went begging and a few close LBW shouts that were unsuccessful, but Glamorgan maintained control for most of the day.

Skipper Luke Procter’s three for 36 was the best return for the visitors.

Glamorgan will resume on Tuesday with two first innings wickets in hand and will be hoping to continue their push for a second Championship victory of the season.

Northants, who are still without a four-day win this season, face an uphill battle to avoid a second defeat.

Glamorgan began day two on 36 without loss and Billy Root and Eddie Byrom did a good job at blunting what was left of the new ball threat with a stand of 63.

It was the introduction of the left arm spin of Nottinghamshire loanee Liam Patterson-White that brought about the first wicket when Byrom edged his second ball to Privthi Shaw who took a sharp catch at first slip.

Root was dismissed by Justin Broad when he was trapped LBW by a ball that nipped back into him to leave Glamorgan 85 for two.

From there Labuschagne and Kiran Carlson batted brilliantly for a stand of 140 that took Glamorgan towards parity with Northamptonshire’s first innings.

Labuschagne and Carlson were busy throughout their stand and ran well to put pressure on the Northamptonshire fielders, scoring at 4.5 runs an over.

Labuschagne looked certain to make it to his 10th Glamorgan hundred, but he was also trapped by a Broad in swinger that hit him in front of the stumps when he was on 93.

Sam Northeast hit his first ball to the boundary for four, but he edged Luke Procter behind three balls later.

When Carlson fell for 71 Glamorgan had lost three wickets for 42 runs and were in danger of surrendering the strong platform they had built for themselves.

With a relatively long tail in this match they needed some lower order support to take them into the lead.

Timm van der Gugten was promoted to seven and his stand with Chris Cooke put on 68 runs and took Glamorgan into the lead.

Van der Gugten was the aggressor, making 41 of those runs from 63 balls. His innings came to an end when he edged the new ball to the keeper McManus off the bowling of Procter.

At the fall of van der Gugten’s wicket Glamorgan were 56 runs in front, a useful lead but not yet a match defining one. Cooke went some way to putting Glamorgan into a winning position with a 120 ball fifty with support from James Harris.

Cooke fell in the closing stages of the day, but Harris and Mason Crane got Glamorgan to the close with the lead past three figures.

Pitches in Cardiff have often flattened out as the match progresses, but Glamorgan are far enough in front to think they can push for victory.

Teenage fast bowler Raphy Weatherall, who claimed two for 62, believes it was a decent day with the ball for Northants.

“I think we saw from the first innings bowling back of a length hard into the pitch there was a lot of variation," he said.

"It was moving around off the seam a lot and I think we took what we saw and tried our best to convert that.

"Obviously, we have quite a young and inexperienced bowling attack but Luke Procter showed us where we were meant to bowl, bashing away at the top of off stump.

"If you look at our wickets most of them were genuine edges, bowled and top of off stump deliveries.

"So I think we can be pretty happy with how we bowled.”