Emilio Gay continues his fine form with half-century for Northamptonshire against Glamorgan

A well-constructed half-century from Emilio Gay was the mainstay of Northamptonshire’s batting efforts on the first day of their Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Northamptonshire reached 279 all out with Luke Procter and Gus Miller helping them to recover from a middle-order collapse.

Three wickets a piece for Timm van der Gugten, Andy Gorvin and James Harris were the highlight for Glamorgan with the ball, but with Northamptonshire having been 195 for seven they will feel they let their opponents back into the game.

Glamorgan faced seven overs before the close and reached 36 without loss, 243 behind.

Early wickets

Northamptonshire lost two early wickets to Harris. The first was Ricardo Vasconcelos who was bowled for seven and Harris claimed his second wicket in his next over when Prithvi Shaw edged a ball to Sam Northeast at first slip to leave them 19 for two.

Gay continued his fine form with a patient and well-made 65.

He shared a stand of 90 with Procter but was dismissed when he edged Gorvin to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip.

A stand of 48 between Procter and Rob Keogh took the visitors past 150 before both departed at the start of a spell that saw Northamptonshire lose four wickets for 28 runs.

Lewis McManus faced 20 balls from Van der Gugten and played and missed at eight of them, but it was Gorvin who trapped him lbw for 19.

Liam Patterson-White combined with debutant Miller for a stand of 37, but the former chipped a ball from Gorvin to Eddie Byrom for 30 with Northamptonshire still 18 runs short of claiming their first batting bonus point.

Miller and Raphael Weatherall managed to take Northamptonshire past 250 to claim their first point of the game. Even after Glamorgan took the second new ball, Miller (40) continued to impress in his maiden first-class match.

Byrom and Billy Root successfully saw out the seven overs that were left to bowl at the end of the day.