County Championship: Van der Gugten strikes for Glamorgan before rain

Sydney-born Timm van der Gugten has made 46 appearances for the Netherlands

Northants reached a solid 128-4 in difficult conditions against Glamorgan as Timm van der Gugten starred with the ball.

Charlie Thurston held them together with an unbeaten 36.

Van der Gugten (3-35) and Michael Neser (1-30) caused all the batsmen trouble before rain arrived at 14:45 BST.

In a match between two sides destined for division two cricket, Northants' decision to bat first in gloomy weather came as a surprise.

But acting captain Ricardo Vasconcelos (25) and Emilio Gay (22) made a steady start against the accuracy of Neser and Michael Hogan.

Van der Gugten removed both in his first spell and returned after lunch to have Rob Keogh caught at slip for 12, while Neser trapped Luke Procter lbw for three in a string of vociferous leg-before appeals.

Saif Zaib (18 not out) was dropped behind off a difficult chance down leg-side off Van der Gugten, but added 34 with Thurston to leave the game evenly poised.

Although both sides are already certain to be in the middle tier at the end of the season, points from this match will count in the next table after the divisional split.

Glamorgan bowler Timm van der Gugten told BBC Sport Wales:

"We were potentially going to bowl first, I'd say we're probably slightly ahead in the game, but from what we've seen it's going to be a pretty good cricket wicket. If you bowl well there's enough [help]there, but if you bat well there's plenty of opportunities to score.

"I'm pretty happy with how the ball's coming out in the four-day stuff, I try to keep it pretty simple and increase my consistency on lengths. I've been lucky enough to get a few wickets in the last couple of games, but we've all bowled pretty well.

"We're going to go through with Northants so it would be great to take through to division two as many points as we can get during this game."