Cricket

Lewis McManus ignites Northants to leave Glamorgan clinging on

Northamptonshire 279 and 472 for 8 dec (McManus 168, Vasconcelos 99, Procter 98) drew with Glamorgan 490 (Crane 56*, Procter 3-51) and 207 for 8 (Labuschagne 64, Patterson-White 3-101)

Northamptonshire came close to pulling off a remarkable comeback win over Glamorgan in the Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan thanks to a career best 168 from Lewis McManus and wickets for Alex Turner and Liam Patterson-White.

Northamptonshire declared on 472 for eight to leave Glamorgan a target of 262 in 39 overs. The home side made a good go of chasing down the stiff target with Marnus Labuschagne scoring his second fifty of the match but late wickets left Northamptonshire a chance of pulling off victory.

Having been 211 runs behind on first innings, Northamptonshire had nine catchers around the bat in the closing overs as they pushed for the win.

Glamorgan finished on 207 for eight with Northamptonshire two wickets short of victory.

Northamptonshire resumed their second innings just 25 runs in front of Glamorgan but their biggest partnership of the match extended that lead significantly. Luke Procter and McManus shared a stand of 161 that lasted past lunch on the last day. As with the third day there seemed to be little threat from the quicker bowlers but Glamorgan were hampered in their pursuit for wickets by the absence of James Harris who was off the field with a quad injury.

In the absence of Harris, Labuschagne came on to bowl seam and he generated some decent pace, albeit without managing a breakthrough. He also sent down a few overs of leg spin once the shine was off the new ball.

The first wicket of the day came in the second session when Timm van der Gugten trapped Procter for 98, the second Northamptonshire batter to get out in the nineties in this innings after Ricardo Vasconcelos fell for 99 late on day three.

Lewis McManus had past his hundred from 150 balls just before the fall of Procter’s wicket and he looked to be more attacking once he had reached his milestone, scoring at better than a run a ball as he looked to set a target for Glamorgan to chase.

McManus passed 150 for the first time in first class cricket and took four consecutive sixes off Crane in the last over before Northamptonshire declared to leave Glamorgan needing to score at seven an over to win.

Glamorgan were 30 for one at the tea break and after the interval they made a real push to keep the required rate under control, but that desire for quick runs brought about the demise of Billy Root when Labuschagne called him through for a very sharp single and both batters ended up at the same end.

Carlson and Labuschagne kept up the intensity in their stand of 62 from 57 balls. Carlson was bowled by Alex Russell when he attempted a big shot to the shorter boundary on the Grandstand side of the ground.

Labuschagne looked very keen to secure a win in his last home game in the Championship this season but he chipped a catch to point off the bowling of Liam Patterson-White for 64.

Chris Cooke continued to attack but he fell for 27 looking to hit Russell over long off. Mason Crane was dismissed for a duck and Harry Podmore was bowled for 1 as Northamptonshire continued the late push to complete the comeback but Timm van der Gugten saw out the last over to secure the draw.