Middlesex 62 for 0 trail Glamorgan 183 (Helm 4-44) by 121 runs

Middlesex took charge of their Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan in Cardiff, finishing the day on 62 without loss having bowled out the hosts for 183.

The top-scorer for Glamorgan was Zain-ul-Hassan who made 34 after the top order had been removed by the Middlesex seamers.

Middlesex batted for 21 overs at the end of the day and were 122 runs behind Glamorgan’s first-innings total at the close.

The Glamorgan openers started out positively with Marnus Labuschagne and Eddie Byrom scoring nine boundaries inside the opening hour of the game. Labuschagne was showing a lot of attacking intent throughout his stay at the crease and that led to his downfall. He drove hard at a ball from Helm and was caught by wicketkeeper Jack Davies.

It was the introduction of Ryan Higgins that brought about the end of Byrom, a sharp bouncer taking his gloves and ballooning up for a simple catch by Davies. Kiran Carlson was the next to go, and as with Labuschagne he drove at a ball with hard hands to be caught in the slips by Higgins.

When these two teams met in the first match of the season Sam Northeast made the highest score at Lord’s when he plundered 335 not out from this attack. It was a different story here as he struggled to get started and never really settled. He was bowled by a snorter of a delivery from Helm that tore his off stump out the ground.

When Helm dismissed Chris Cooke two balls later, bowled with a ball the batter left alone, Glamorgan were 92 for 5. That became 92 for 6 when Colin Ingram, the leading run scorer in first-class cricket this season, played a ball onto his stumps for 10 off the bowling of Bamber.

Amidst the wickets tumbling at the other end Zain was playing a tidy innings and had reached 34 when he was caught at slip by Leus du Plooy via an attempted reverse pull, as Glamorgan had stumbled to 103 for 7.

Andy Gorvin and Mason Crane held up the Middlesex attack for a stand of 31 before Gorvin was caught off a top-edged hook shot for 12.

Crane made a career best 61 against Northamptonshire in April and he showed good application with the bat in this game as he finished undefeated on 32. It was his runs that allowed Glamorgan to reach the total that they did after the top-order collapse.

Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman made the Glamorgan total look a long way under par as they navigated the new ball without much difficulty. Stoneman was the more fluent of the two as he made it to 42 not out at the close. Robson was undefeated on a patient 18 from 57 balls at the other end.