Glamorgan 228 for 4 (Kellaway 55*, Ingram 52*) trail Gloucestershire 380 (Bracey 133, van der Gugten 4-61, Crane 4-89) by 152 runs
A day of recoveries, led by James Bracey and later by Glamorgan's middle order left the Severnside derby in the balance in Cardiff.
The Gloucestershire vice-captain continued his brilliant season-turning 57 overnight to 133, passing 6,000 First-Class runs in the process thanks to a 89-run final-wicket partnership with Archie Bailey, rescuing the visitors to 380 after an early morning wobble.
A Bailey double-wicket spell restricted Glamorgan after their earlier woes of missing three chances to reduce Gloucestershire's total before Colin Ingram and Ben Kellaway both passed 50 late in the day to combine for an unbeaten 107-run partnership to close out the day on 228 for 4.
After a day of divide on day one, Gloucestershire resumed 279 for 7, Glamorgan having ended the evening breaking the biggest partnership of the innings (96) between Bracey and Zaman Akhter after a period of acceleration.
Glamorgan thought they would've had the bat in hand within the first half-an-hour of the morning session, Timm van der Gugten dismissing Todd Murphy and Ajeet Singh Dale within the first five overs of the morning.
The frustration that followed from Bracey reaching his century, together with Bailey scoring his first runs in First Class cricket in the 20-year-old's fifth match, brought Gloucestershire to a fighting total despite fears on the previous afternoon of not taking advantage of the Kookaburra ball.
A morning spent toiling in the field by a lacklustre Glamorgan can only have blame on themselves. Andy Gorvin dropping Bracey on 87, denying van der Gugten a five-for. James Harris missed a run-out from a scampering two, attempting to protect strike and Chris Cooke missed stumping Bailey in his valuable 56-ball knock.
While Glamorgan failed to take their chances, their rivals controlled, the final-wicket partnership bringing back fond memories of a year prior in a last-ball thriller between these two sides at Cheltenham College. Bracey scored a double hundred on that occasion and a final-wicket partnership of 75 made Glamorgan's pursuit of a target in excess of 500 more improbable. Today, they broke the record for the last wicket against Glamorgan once again.
After negating one over before lunch from Singh Dale, the hosts resumed cautiously; battling the early pace and carry in the wicket with the new ball from a formidable England Lions opening pair.
While Akhter struggled to hit his mark, Singh Dale was the opposite, bowling with sharp pace, generating more out of the harder ball than any of the Glamorgan bowlers could manage. An opening spell of 1 for 11 from seven overs, including the wicket of an unsettled Zain Ul Hassan piled pressure on after a dominating first session.
Asa Tribe got in and looked as though he would continue his strong all-format form with pleasant drives and casual leg glances before fiddling at a ball outside off stump from a second Bailey spell. The youngster's memorable day continued when Kiran Carlson flicked off his hip directly to fine-leg.
Sam Northeast showed typical grit before a bizarre dismissal saw him bowled by van Buuren, taking leg-stump's bail with a ball turning past his outside edge onto off-stump. Another bowling change working in Cameron Bancroft's favour.
With Glamorgan in bother at 121 for 4 and two relatively new batters at tea, the conditions naturally became easier in the sweltering sunshine. The aging Kookaburra had very few demons allowing for patience to prevail with some destruction and fluent driving later on to give the visitors their turn to toil in the field.
