County Championship: Northamptonshire battle to draw with Glamorgan

Northants' Harry Gouldstone impressed with both gloves and bat

Nine-man Northamptonshire pulled off a remarkable rearguard action as they batted through the final day to salvage a draw against Glamorgan.

The visitors, who started 247 runs behind on first innings, finished on 250-5.

Rob Keogh and Championship debutant Harry Gouldstone led the way with fifties on a placid wicket.

Frustrated Glamorgan could not capitalise on an early three-wicket burst from Michael Neser.

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Glamorgan still finished third in Group Three, having been ranked fifth, as their superior bonus points tally allowed them to overtake Northants.

Both Glamorgan and Northants will go into the Second Division in the last month of the season, with both clubs facing Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire and Surrey.

Northamptonshire were left two men down before the start of the final day when all-rounder Luke Procter suffered a second family bereavement in the space of a fortnight and left the game, with the visitors already short because of Gareth Berg's serious ankle injury.

Glamorgan declared on their overnight score, with Kiran Carlson's 170 not out making it a special day on the back of news of his 2:1 degree in business management from Cardiff University.

Neser, capped before the start of play in his fifth and final Championship appearance of the season before returning to Queensland, started with a three-wicket burst to dismiss Ricardo Vasconcelos for nought, Emilio Gay for 19 and Charlie Thurston for 29, all to assorted catches by keeper Chris Cooke.

Keogh and Saif Zaib survived the second hour before Zaib (19) was run out the ball before lunch by Marnus Labuschagne, stitched up by a disastrous call from his partner.

Keogh and Gouldstone settled in for the first 80 minutes after lunch before Keogh, on 50, departed to view the live-stream of his grandmother's funeral by prior arrangement.

Gouldstone played with great maturity in partnership with Simon Kerrigan to repel the pace, seam and spin variations of Glamorgan's eight-man bowling attack.

Kerrigan (39) eventually fell to Michael Hogan with the new ball but Keogh returned to see it to the close alongside the composed rookie Gouldstone, who eventually faced 199 balls in his memorable four-hour vigil.

Glamorgan bowler Michael Neser told BBC Sport Wales:

"We'll be proud of the way we performed today, they batted well but we put in a good fight so there's a lot of positives to take away.

"We could have potentially been in the top two in the group if a couple of results had gone our way with weather that affected those games, but we beat the number one team Lancashire and we've shown a lot of potential in red ball.

"It's been a tough spell here, but I've loved every minute of it. The great thing about county cricket is you get a vast array of different pitches and you've got to adapt, so it's great to come over here and learn that skill.

"Everyone at this team has been absolutely delightful so I can't wait for the next two years."

Northants wicket-keeper Harry Gouldstone told BBC Radio Northampton:

"Rob was helping me a lot, talking me through it, and he's very experienced. We were playing it over by over, then 20 minute intervals especially when they had the likes of Neser on. We were just getting through their spells.

"I've always liked batting with Simon, he's a very friendly man and I like batting with northerners. I've never batted that long before or felt that tired and I had my superstitious jumper on. I got a hundred with it and haven't taken it off since, whether it's been five degrees or 30."

Assistant coach Chris Liddle said:

"It's been a tough trip and we've had stuff come up that we couldn't have foreseen, so it's been a real challenge for the group.

"But today's shown the real fight and determination and we're really proud of the efforts to take home the draw. Rob Keogh, Harry, Saif Zaib put in a real fight to get us over the line and it was a really important knock from Simon Kerrigan."