James Bracey double century puts Gloucestershire in box seat against Glamorgan

James Bracey hit a career-best 204 not out as Gloucestershire batted themselves into a position of strength on the third day of their Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan at Cheltenham.

Cameron Bancroft made 184 and fellow Australian Beau Webster contributed an unbeaten 65 as the home side racked up 610 for five before declaring their second innings shortly after lunch.

Marnus Labuschagne and Sam Northeast summoned stiff resistance in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 66 in the final session, but Gloucestershire nevertheless made inroads into the top order to reduce Glamorgan to 222 for three at the close, still 370 behind.

Gloucestershire resumed their second innings on 388 for three and Bracey brought up his third first-class hundred of the year and the 12th of his career from 131 balls.

Marathon

Bancroft’s marathon knock came to an end after six-and-a-half hours and 266 balls when Andy Gorvin’s delivery found his outside edge and gave Chris Cooke a straightforward catch behind the stumps.

His fourth-wicket stand with Bracey had yielded 253 runs.

Graeme van Buuren bagged a pair as he nicked Dan Douthwaite behind without scoring, but at the other end Bracey pulled Douthwaite over square leg for six to bring up his 150.

Bracey passed his previous highest score of 177 by pulling Mason Crane over mid-wicket for a towering six and soon went to his maiden double hundred.

He had faced 231 balls and hit 20 fours and four sixes when the declaration arrived soon afterwards.

Glamorgan made a decent start to their second innings, Billy Root and Eddie Byrom staging an opening stand of 67.

Root (46) top-edged Marchant de Lange to deep fine leg where Ajeet Singh Dale took a catch on the run, while Byrom (37) shouldered arms to a delivery from Singh Dale that knocked back off stump.

Kiran Carlson then came and went quickly as Glamorgan slipped to 156 for three.

But Labuschagne and Northeast have made 67 and 47 not out respectively to prevent Gloucestershire from making any further inroads.