County Championship: Glamorgan in sight of win over Worcs

Timm van der Gugten is Glamorgan’s leading bowler with 27 Championship wickets this season

Glamorgan are in sight of their first Championship win of the season with Worcestershire on 195-7, leading by just 46 runs.

Timm van der Gugten (4-38) was again the home star with the ball.

Matthew Waite led the visitors' late resistance with 45 not out, after they had looked set for a two-day defeat.

Earlier Michael Neser's 86 steered Glamorgan to 258 despite a career-best 5-74 from Adam Finch.

Billy Root edged Finch to slip for 28 but Van der Gugten hung around for 19 in a stand of 57 for the eighth wicket before Brett D'Oliveira introduced his leg-spin and had him caught behind.

Finch completed his five-for when James Harris was caught behind off a lifter, but Neser played some forceful and uncomplicated shots, striking 13 fours to demonstrate his all-rounder claims and earn Glamorgan a batting bonus point in the company of last man Jamie McIlroy.

Trailing by 149, Worcestershire lost six wickets in a lengthy afternoon session with the in-form Van der Gugten leading the charge, taking two wickets in each of his first two spells.

Only Azhar Ali, with a patient 34, and Adam Hose, with an aggressive 35, threatened to make any sort of inroads into the deficit as Worcestershire looked short of confidence following their first-day ordeal.

Left-armer McIlroy, the relative newcomer in the attack after a late arrival in the county game, switched constantly between round and over the wicket to claim the other two to fall in the session.

Gareth Roderick (39) and Waite took the Pears into the lead, looking relatively untroubled in the evening session while putting together their side's biggest stand of the innings, as they had done first time round.

But Marnus Labuschagne broke the partnership on 72 with Roderick dragging a straight ball from outside off onto his leg stump.

Joe Leach joined Waite but any lingering thoughts of an extra half-hour and a finish on the second day were ended when the umpires took the teams off for bad light, seven overs before the scheduled end.

Glamorgan bowler Jamie McIlroy told BBC Sport Wales:

"We did well to get to the batting point, the target was just to get the lead as high as we could. Then we came out with the ball, started really well, and kept hitting our lines and lengths.

"There's not a whole lot of pace and bounce out there, so we worked really hard to be patient and take the rewards.

"At tea Marnus was saying 'let me get on' and it worked (with Roderick's wicket).

"It feels really good to be in the first team, settling in, backing my skills and working hard. I'm trying to contribute a few more wickets but as long as the unit's working, we're doing well."

Worcestershire bowler Adam Finch told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"I'm really pleased with the first five-for, it's a bit of a monkey off the back when people talk about the currency of wickets and it's nice to check that first one off and hopefully keep going in that direction.

"I didn't start as well as I wanted, but really pleased with how I reacted and adjusted my lengths.

"It was really great work from Rodders and Waite in that last session to battle for however many runs we could get. That's us at our best (after tea on both days) but it hasn't gone our way over the two days.

"It sets us up to try to work really hard and scrap to (setting) a bit of a target to have a bowl at."