County Championship: Vasconcelos leads Northants resistance against Glamorgan

Ricardo Vasconcelos led a strong Northants fightback with 99 as they reached 236-4 in their second innings to lead Glamorgan by 25 runs going into the final day.

The visitors were undaunted by a hefty deficit of 211 as captain Luke Procter made a solid unbeaten 55, adding 116 with Vasconcelos.

But two late wickets in two balls from Mason Crane revived Glamorgan victory hopes.

Earlier Glamorgan took their overnight 390-8 to 490 all out as Crane became their fourth half-century maker.

The home side easily secured their fourth batting point as James Harris (40) and Crane (56 not out) took their partnership to 63 against a toiling attack before Harris drove Rob Keogh to mid-wicket.

With the pitch appearing to flatten out on a hot afternoon, the series of useful stands continued with another 53 for the last wicket before Andy Gorvin (26) holed out on the boundary off Newport-born leg-spinner Alex Russell.

Despite the potential scoreboard pressure, Vasconcelos and Emilio Gay set off at a decent lick, putting together 59 before Gay (26) was caught behind down the leg-side off Gorvin.

India’s Prithvi Shaw, playing his first match of the season, fell for 23 as he edged Timm van der Gugten low to Chris Cooke, although Shaw appeared to hang around, believing it had not carried, before umpire Sue Redfern raised her finger for a second time after checking with fellow official Hassan Adnan.

Vasconcelos, whose two highest scores of 185 and 182 not out have come against Glamorgan, looked set for a fourth 100 against them as he struck 12 fours, with Procter a composed partner in reaching 50 off 104 balls.

But with the scores level and Vasconcelos on 99, Glamorgan brought in the field and piled on the pressure as leg-spinner Crane had two loud lbw shouts in quick succession before succeeding in his third.

Keogh then prodded his first ball to short-leg and Crane thought he had a hat-trick with the first ball of his next over, but umpire Adnan correctly judged the ball deflected off Lewis McManus’s arm to silly point.

McManus and Procter avoided any further alarms, but Glamorgan are still more strongly placed going into the final day, although they still have a negative over-rate to make up to avoid losing points.