Levi century keeps Northants in hunt
Edwin Charles sees Northants keep pressure on as careless Glamorgan waste their chances
Richard Levi put a difficult season behind him to score his first century of the season and keep Northamptonshire’s outside promotion hopes alive.
He made the most of being dropped by Kiran Carlson off Lukas Carey to reach a belligerent century off 97 deliveries to help Northants to a 103-run first innings lead.
It was ample reward for Levi who had missed a substantial part of the season after suffering from concussion.
And it prompted Glamorgan head coach Robert Croft to take the unusual actiion of getting his misfiring attack on the outfield during the second day lunch interval to practise for 10 minutes.
That seemed to work as his attack took a lead from the ever accurate Michael Hogan to claim four Northants wickets for 19 runs either side of the tea interval.
With Levi falling immediately after completing his century the Northants lead, however substantial, was kept to manageable proportions.
Glamorgan, having elected to bat first, had been in trouble at 102-6 on day one, before Andrew Salter (59) and Craig Meschede (49) guided them to 207 all out.
Richard Gleeson claimed five wickets as Glamorgan’s carelessness was epitomised by Jacques Rudolph’s dismissal, bowled shouldering arms to the Northants’ medium pacer.
Then when Meschede and Andrew Salter had affected a recovery with a 97run stand, the former managed to get himself stumped off left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan.
The carelessness showed itself in the field, too, when Levi was dropped to surrender a potentially encouraging position for the Welsh county after Northants lost the early wickets of Ben Duckett and David Murphy for 49.
Rob Newton struck a 95-ball fifty to guide the visitors, who had scored 78 in the first hour, to 137-2 at lunch.
But from being 248-4 at tea they fell to 310 all out with Hogan being rewarded for his excellence with 4-58.
Trailing by 103, Glamorgan began their second innings poorly, losing Nick Selman for 13 when he was bowled by the persistent Gleeson before Glamorgan closed on 63-1, 40 behind.
But the target for Northants stretched beyond 200 on a rain-interrupted third day as vital Glamorgan contributions from Carlson and Chris Cooke were backed by Marchant de Lange’s big-hitting.