Chris Dent, Graeme van Buuren keep Gloucestershire in touch

Two superb catches by Glamorgan skipper Chris Cooke and two wickets in three balls by offspinner Andrew Salter stopped Gloucestershire from romping to a big second-day total in their LV= Insurance County Championship at Sophia Gardens.

Cooke dived full length to take one catch with his left hand and then took another in similar fashion with his right to remove Miles Hammond and then Tom Lace off seamers Michael Hogan and David Lloyd. Responding to Glamorgan's first innings total of 309 all out, Gloucestershire were going along very nicely until Cooke's intervention. Skipper Chris Dent and Hammond had successfully negotiated 18 overs before Hammond's nick brought their first wicket stand to an end at 63.

Lace went with the score on 90 and that allowed Dent and Graeme van Buuren to wade into a home attack that lacked punch and length. They put on 96 for the third wicket, with Dent playing the anchor role until he attempted to inexplicably ramp Salter and was clean bowled.

He left for 75, his fifth half-century of the season, with the score on 184 for 3. Two balls later, Ryan Higgins went back to another Salter delivery and was plum lbw to make it 184 for 4.

van Buuren was the aggressor throughout and reached his 50 off 87 balls with his 10th four of the day. He was unbeaten on 65 when the players went off for bad light at 4.47pm, with Ben Wells, on his championship debut, contributing a very handy 25 to steer the visitors to 224 for 4, trailing by 85 runs.

The Glamorgan seamers, other than Hogan, were expensive and rarely troubled Gloucestershire's batters. Ruaidhri Smith was the most expensive, conceding 50 runs from his nine overs, while Timm van der Gugten went for 42 off 15. Salter was the pick of the home bowlers and ended with 2 for 47 from his 18 overs.

Gloucestershire had struck early when play resumed, removing Salter with the third ball of the morning. He became David Payne's second victim of the innings and the stubborn partnership between him and Eddie Byrom ended on 73. Smith lasted three overs before he became the seventh wicket to fall as Higgins picked up his second wicket and then Bryon played on to Payne to depart for 78. He hit 10 fours in an innings that lasted three-and-a-half hours.

van der Gugten conjured up 14 runs before he was the last man out with Glamorgan having limped over the 300 run mark and ended on 309 all out.