Northants criticise Glamorgan pitch as run-fest ends in a draw

Northamptonshire have criticised the Glamorgan pitch which yielded 1390 runs, six centurions and 19 wickets as "shocking" and "poor" following their drawn County Championship match.

It might have been shocking to watch, but it did not stop Glamorgan's Kiran Carlson scoring a century in a session as the home county gained five batting points in the 92nd over.

The final day descended into farce with Glamorgan using 10 bowlers, their two spinners - Carlson and Billy Root - bowling medium pace, while Northants' only objective to was break as many records as they could.

They achieved the highest score made at Sophia Gardens of 750 and their highest against Glamorgan, but that would have been of little interest to the handful of spectators left.

After resuming on 522 for 4, Rob Keogh and Adam Rossington shared a partnership of 169 for the fifth wicket, but Keogh should have been out on 74, when Lloyd dropped him off Michael Hogan at slip. Rossington made 70, before he swatted a full toss to mid-wicket from Marnus Labuschagne's leg spin.

Keogh went on to score 150 before he too fell to Labuschagne, who was signed by Glamorgan largely as a batsman and ended up taking 3 for 122 from his 44 overs.

West Indies captain Jason Holder made just three runs before he was bowled through the gate by Charlie Hemphrey's off-spin.

Nathan Buck then slogged away at the end of the innings, scoring his maiden first-class fifty before he fell lbw to Root.

Nick Selman, the Glamorgan opening batsman used as their 10th bowler, captured his first Championship wicket when he had Ben Sanderson out, edging to wicketkeeper Chris Cooke for 18.

There were 33 overs remaining at the end of the day, and despite losing Selman to Josh Cobb's gentle medium pace, Hemphrey and Labuschagne avoided any further alarms, with the umpires mercifully ending the game at 5.00pm with 17 overs left, and Glamorgan 70 for 1.

Ricardo Vasconcelos top scored in the run-fest with 184 for Northamptonshire.

Northants opener Rob Newton described the pitch as "shocking", while captain Alex Wakely was also critical of the surface.

"I thought it was a very poor pitch and, as you saw, very difficult for the bowlers to take wickets," Wakely said. "Our bowlers had a long bowl in the last game against Middlesex and in the first innings here, and it did them good to have a rest. It was difficult to score quickly and we weren't prepared to declare."

Despite Northants' record total, Glamorgan Head Coach Matthew Maynard was delighted with his team's efforts and disagreed with the visitors' assessment of the pitch.

"The batsmen batted aggressively on a good pitch, the bowlers were disciplined and had we taken the five chances in the field, then things might have been different," Maynard said. "We can't comment on the way Northants played, but had we been in their position, we would have certainly attacked more, declared and had a go at winning the game."