Bob Willis Trophy: Northants ease to first win v Glamorgan

Emilio Gay made his first class debut for Northamptonshire in 2019

Northants eased to their first win of the Bob Willis Trophy as they beat Glamorgan by six wickets in a howling gale.

Emilio Gay saw them home with his career-best 77 not out while Charlie Thurston added 64 to his earlier ton.

The inexperienced pair showed no nerves in a stand of 106.

Australian pace bowler Michael Hogan claimed his 600th first-class wicket just before the end came but Glamorgan remain without a win.

Luke Proctor was the victim, edging a drive through to keeper Chris Cooke for veteran seamer Hogan to take his tally to 376 in eight seasons for Glamorgan in addition to 224 for Western Australia.

Rain wiped out the first half of the final day with Northants making short work of scoring 127 more runs to win, as the match was finished without bails because of high winds.

Northants overtake Glamorgan at the bottom of the Central Group.

Northants start their T20 Blast campaign away to Gloucestershire on the afternoon of Thursday 27 August while Glamorgan host Worcestershire on that evening, as both teams start a hectic period of five matches in eight days.

Northants stand-in captain Ricardo Vasconcelos told BBC Radio Northampton:

"Over the moon with the win especially since I'm captaining my first game but it's great timing for everyone with the win going into T20 to get a bit of a feelgood factor back.

"So from that point of view it was very important even though we were missing a few guys from the T20 squad.

"The bowlers did really well up top in both Glamorgan innings before the tail-enders whacked it everywhere, but for Ben Curran, Emilio and Charlie to play the way they did in both innings to wrestle back the momentum in our favour."

Glamorgan head coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales:

"Michael Hogan has been phenomenal, he's led the attack since he came over and has been one of the best opening bowlers in the country for that period of time.

"The tone he sets, the way he practises, the way he dives round in the field and he's no mug with the bat either, he strikes a great ball. Six hundred first-class wickets is a great landmark for him and a terrific effort, a brilliant achievement.

"It was low, high. low, high in our batting- we haven't batted well all year as a unit, we haven't had good starts and that hasn't enabled our stroke-makers in the middle order to flourish. Once or twice is fine but it's happened every game.

"To see someone like (debut centurion) Callum Taylor come in and play with the maturity he did, he's a very exciting character and I thought he was really unlucky with the decision in the second innings."