Akhter burst gives Glos victory chance despite Ingram ton for Glam
Zaman Akhter's 5-85 was the third five wicket haul of his first-class career
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Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol (day three)
Gloucestershire 546: Bancroft 163, O Price 101, Hammond 54; Leonard 3-122
Glamorgan 385 (107.5 overs): Ingram 103, Cooke 56, Northeast 50; Akhter 5-85, Singh Dale 3-61 & 106-0 (following on): Ul Hassan 51*
Glamorgan (5 pts) trail Gloucestershire (7 pts) by 55 runs with all 10 second-innings wickets standing
Zaman Akhter and Ajeet Singh Dale bowled Gloucestershire into a strong position as they enforced the follow-on against Glamorgan.
The visitors go into the final day on 106-0, still 55 runs adrift, after resistance from Zain Ul Hassan and Eddie Byrom.
Colin Ingram's classy century and 56 from Chris Cooke gave Glamorgan hope of avoiding the follow-on.
But England Lions pacemen Akhter (5-85) and Singh Dale (3-61) turned in hostile spells to run through the lower order.
- Published31 January
Starting the day still 400 runs adrift, Glamorgan had to weather a hostile opening burst from the home seamers with the weather at its most overcast.
It was Singh Dale who made the breakthrough as Kiran Carlson edged to a diving Cameron Bancroft at second slip for 22 in a stand of 50.
The pattern of batters getting in, then getting out, continued as Ben Kellaway had his off stump knocked back for 21 by a fine yorker from Zaman Akhter.
But the experienced pair of Ingram and Cooke, Glamorgan's last hopes for major scores, settled in as the sun came out, with Ingram reaching a patient 50 by belting Ollie Price over long-on for six.
The important second new ball came at 270-5 early in the afternoon but Ingram moved on to a composed century in a stand of 129 before Gloucestershire's quicker change bowlers struck in devastating fashion.
Caption Colin Ingram was the leading scorer in the Championship in 2024
Cooke was bowled by a fine delivery from Akhter, and five balls later Singh Dale produced a snorter to rattle Ingram's stumps after a high-class innings and van der Gugten edged an attempted drive to Akhter at slip.
Ned Leonard and Shoaib Bashir battled bravely but Akhter bowled both Leonard and Asitha Fernando, the number eleven playing some wild swings before Akhter struck the stumps for the fourth time, the ball after plugging the Sri Lankan on the helmet.
The weary seamers charged in gamely in the evening sunshine as Ul Hassan (51*) and Byrom (47*) played out the last two hours in the evening sunshine without too many alarms, leaving the home side with plenty of work to do to force victory on the final day.
Gloucestershire's Zaman Akhter told BBC Radio Bristol:
"Definitely a tired body at the minute, we bowled pretty well for a day and a half there and the rewards came in a little clump at the back end.
"The one to get Cooke was nice, and we knew as a unit we could come pretty hard at them then, Aj (Singh Dale) and me. To get all 10 (wickets) was a really good effort on that pitch.
"Enforcing the follow-on has put us in a good place to win the game, they've had a decent stint with the bat but we can come at them nice and fresh again."
Glamorgan's Colin Ingram told BBC Sport Wales:
"It's always nice to spend time in the middle, though it wasn't one of my prettier ones and it was really tough going in the morning, but I really enjoyed the partnership with Chris Cooke to get back into the swing of things.
"The longer we went on, we started to stretch them and we wanted to tire their seamers out, but they kept coming at us.
"(Ul Hassan and Byrom) played beautifully, they looked to score when they had the opportunities to shrink the deficit, and we've given ourselves a great shot at dragging ourselves into the game though the pitch has been more lively than we anticipated."