County Championship: Van der Gugten puts Glamorgan on top against Northamptonshire

Alex Wakely is a former England Under-19s captain

Glamorgan seamer Timm van der Gugten led the way with 5-45 as Northants collapsed for 223-3 to 281 all out after choosing to bat in the Cardiff sunshine.

The home side reached 21-0 in seven overs by the close.

Northants looked to be building a substantial total thanks to Alex Wakely (82), Richard Levi (75) and Ricardo Vasconcelos (56).

But Ruaidhri Smith took 3-73 before Van der Gugten cleaned up the tail.

It was Wakely's top score of the season and a first Championship fifty for Vasconcelos, but the visitors' loss of five wickets for six runs against the new ball saw them lose their advantage.

Meanwhile all-rounder Seekkuge Prasanna was out for a second-ball duck in his first match of the season.

The Sri Lankan had initially signed for the Vitality Blast campaign but has been selected for this match to "re-acquaint himself with his team-mates".

Glamorgan bowler Timm van der Gugten told BBC Sport Wales:

"They put a pretty good partnership together between Levi and Wakely (of 118), so it was good to break that and to run through the tail means we don't have to come out and bowl again, hopefully the batters can bat all day and give us bowlers a bit of a rest!

"As a bowler you always felt you were in the game, at the start it seamed around and then it swung all day, so it's one of those wickets you have to dig deep as a batter.

"It was always the plan I was going to play a couple of games for Holland (last week), so it worked out out well as I missed one of the back-to-back games and I felt pretty fresh compared to some of the other guys."

Northants captain Alex Wakely told BBC Radio Northampton:

"We played nicely, we got into a good position trying to grind them out of it as it wasn't doing anything for the spinners and the seamers were getting tired, so we thought if we got through the new ball we'd be starting again fresh, but it didn't quite work like that as their seam bowlers put in a good shift.

"We were probably 50 runs light, it's not flat and there is still enough for the wicket for the seamers, so the first hour (on day two) is crucial. There were probably a couple of balls an over with a bit of bounce or seaming away, so it gives us hope but right now I think Glammy have got the upper hand.

"I've played on all sorts (of wickets) here, they all look different and you never know quite what you're going to get."