Yorkshire remain on course for an LV= Insurance County Championship victory over Glamorgan at Cardiff after chipping away at the wickets on day three.
Matthew Revis completed a maiden five-wicket haul in all first-team cricket, an excellent 5-50 from 16.2 overs as the hosts were made to follow-on in reply to Yorkshire’s first-innings 500 all out.
The Welsh county were bowled out for 273 midway through the afternoon having started the day on 150-6.
Glamorgan then fell to 30-2 early in their second innings before reaching close on 120-2 from 44 overs, trailing by 107.
This was another weather-affected day which was shorn of 18 overs following a trio of morning stoppages for rain and a late one for bad light. That included a delayed start by half an hour due to rain. The next two rain delays were only very brief, approximately 10 minutes apiece.
Had Yorkshire ripped through Glamorgan, they could have completed victory inside three days.
But this isn’t the type of pitch for that. It lacks pace, with uneven bounce a bowler’s best friend. It’s offering some turn for Dom Bess, but only slow turn.
Only one wicket fell before lunch, which saw the hosts advance to 213-7.
Revis had Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson caught at short-leg by James Wharton for 64 – 173-7 after 60 overs, ending a 73-run partnership with Dan Douthwaite.
Picture by John Heald. James Wharton takes an early morning catch at short-leg.
The new ball was due in the second over of the afternoon.
Captain Shan Masood had saved new ball duo Coad and Jordan Thompson for that moment, and Coad struck immediately – twice in as many balls, in fact.
He trapped Douthwaite lbw for 37 and bowled James Harris next ball as the score fell to 217-9 in the 81st.
Unfortunately, then, Glamorgan’s 10th-wicket pair Andy Gorvin and Jamie McIlroy frustrated the visitors with a 56-run partnership.
Gorvin made 47 and became increasingly aggressive – he hit George Hill straight down the ground for his only six – while McIlroy added an unbeaten 30. Both were career best scores for the seam bowling duo.
Masood juggled his bowlers pretty quickly after the new ball was taken, almost certainly because he wanted to keep Coad and Thompson back for the start of Glamorgan’s second innings with the follow-on now a certainty.
While it didn’t pay off thanks to the defiance of Gorvin and McIlroy, neither did it threaten Yorkshire’s dominance.
What it did allow, though, was Revis the opportunity to complete his maiden five-wicket haul in first-team colours. And he didn’t pass up the chance.
In trying to hit him onto Cathedral Road – at the opposite end of this ground to the River Taff – Gorvin was bowled three short of his maiden fifty.
Picture by John Heald. Matthew Revis takes the acclaim following a maiden five-for.
Glamorgan’s second innings started with 17 overs remaining through to tea, where they reached at 35-2.
Just as he did with the second new ball, Coad struck immediately at the start of the Glamorgan second innings.
This time he had opener Zain ul Hassan caught at first slip by George Hill for a three-ball duck – 0-1.
And when Dom Bess had South African left-hander Colin Ingram caught at first slip by Adam Lyth, leaving the score at 30-2 in the 13th over, you wondered whether a three-day finish was possible.
Picture by John Heald. Ben Coad celebrates one of his trio of day three wickets.
No was the answer, and there remains a decent amount of work to do to secure victory in four days given the placid nature of the pitch.
Opener Eddie Byrom and former Yorkshire loanee Sam Northeast calmly saw out the rest of the day as metronomic Bess wheeled away from one end and Masood rotated the seamers from the other as they tried to break what remains an unbroken partnership of 90.
Byrom will begin tomorrow’s final day on 52 and Northeast 45. The latter reached his fifty off 102 balls.
For the last 45 minutes of the day, with the light deteriorating, Lyth also had to bowl some off-spin alongside Bess.
Despite being on the back foot, Glamorgan weren’t dominated today by any stretch.
They dug in with the bat and accumulated a trio of key partnerships throughout the day – Carlson and Douthwaite at the start, Gorvin and McIlroy through the middle and Byrom and Northeast at the back end.
They will need something similar tomorrow to deny Yorkshire their third win of the summer and their second in succession.
