One run separated the first innings. Hampshire lead Glamorgan by 125 with a day to bowl

The first innings at Sophia Gardens were settled by a single run. Glamorgan, 149 for 9 overnight and 13 behind, added twelve and were bowled out for 161 in 60 overs. Hampshire had made 162. On a pitch that took 17 wickets on the opening day and then lost most of day two to rain, that is as close to level as a County Championship match gets.

The second innings has been a different game. Hampshire closed on 124 for 2 from 40 overs, an overall lead of 125, and resume there this morning. The only breakthrough of substance came when Timm van der Gugten bowled Ali Orr for 39 from 84 balls to leave the visitors 90 for 2 in the 30th. Toby Albert has taken 68 balls over 17 not out, Jake Lehmann 26 over 23, and the pair have put on 20 in 10.5 overs against Ben Kellaway and Dan Douthwaite.

The arithmetic is unforgiving on the last day. Every run Hampshire add is a run Glamorgan must chase in a fourth innings on a surface that has already shown what it does to batters, and eight second-innings wickets are still standing. Van der Gugten, the leading Championship wicket-taker at the club this summer with 32 at 27.00, is the bowler Glamorgan need to find a way through with.

Glamorgan sit fourth in Division One on 110 points from nine matches, 25 behind Nottinghamshire at the top and inside the group still chasing the title. Hampshire are tenth on 75. A defeat here would not end the season, but it would hand the sides above Glamorgan a free afternoon.