Labuschagne returns to form as Aussies impress

Marnus Labuschagne has found form in England, ensuring Glamorgan handed Lancashire their first defeat of the County Championship season.

The Australian Test star scored an unbeaten 63 and fittingly hit the winning runs as Glamorgan wrapped up a six-wicket victory early on the third morning in Cardiff.

Having struggled in his first four games of the season, Labuschagne finished as the highest scoring batsman for the match as he added to his first-innings 44.

In a low-scoring affair in Cardiff, Labuschagne’s Queensland and Australia teammate Michael Neser picked up seven wickets for the match to continue his impressive start to the season.

Despite the loss, Lancashire remain top of Group 3, while Glamorgan move to 99 points.

Labuschagne has linked up with Glamorgan again this year, returning to the team at which he scored 1114 runs at 65.5 during 2019 to demand a spot in Australia's Ashes squad.

He arrived in Cardiff this year after a man-of-the-match knock of 192 in the Sheffield Shield final but only managed scores of 11, 12, 10, zero, 11 and zero not out to start the season.

It was the first time in Labuschagne's first-class career that he's been dismissed for less than 15 in four consecutive innings.

But he returned to form at Sophia Gardens, top scoring in both innings.

Elsewhere, Cameron Bancroft scored an unbeaten 46 as Durham beat Worcestershire by 10 wickets while Leicestershire completed a thumping win of Dan Worrall's Gloucestershire thanks to a hundred from Australian Marcus Harris on Thursday.

Harris, whose 10-Test career has come in fits and starts since his 2018 debut, plundered 21 fours in his 148 from No.3, to make it back-to-back hundreds after his match-winning 185 against Middlesex last time out.

The incumbent Test opener also scored 101 in his third match for the county, with his most recent century making him one of just five players to record three hundreds already this northern summer in the 18-team competition.