Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (day one)

Glamorgan 318-3: Tribe 135* Carlson 107

Essex: Critchley 2-56

Glamorgan 2 points, Essex 1 point

Match scorecard

Asa Tribe and captain Kiran Carlson put Glamorgan in a commanding position against Essex on the opening day of their final County Championship match of the season at Sophia Gardens.

After a disciplined start from the visitors, Glamorgan seized the initiative through a partnership of more than 150 between Tribe and Carlson before the skipper eventually fell for 107.

Glamorgan are in pole position to finish the campaign with back-to-back victories, meanwhile Essex's Division One future could still hinge on the outcome of Leicestershire's appeal against their points deduction.

However, the Foxes' struggles against title-chasing Warwickshire boosted Essex's survival hopes, while a bowling bonus point in Cardiff strengthened their position further.

Glamorgan made two changes, with Colin Ingram returning for his final Championship match in place of the injured Jack Hope-Bell and Dan Douthwaite replacing Mir Hamza.

Essex, who have not won in the County Championship since they beat Leicestershire on 12 June, brought in Simon Harmer and Jack Auld.

The visitors made life hard for Glamorgan from the start. Sam Cook and Auld both opened with maidens and Tribe survived an early scare when a catch was put down off Auld.

Glamorgan took until the third over top get off the mark and had to wait until the 13th for their first boundary - though a further 34 followed in the match.

The Eagles then built on their positive opening with a breakthrough in the 24th over as Zaman Akhter found the edge of Zain Ul Hassan's bat, creating a catching opportunity for wicket keeper George Bell.

That brought an abrupt end to Glamorgan's opening stand of 76, though that wicket proved Essex's single wicket until the 74th over later in the day.

Carlson replaced him and settled quickly after arriving at the crease as Glamorgan moved passed 100 shortly after lunch, while Tribe continued his fine season by reaching a fifth half-century and passing 800 Championship runs for the summer.

Carlson followed with a half-century from 93 balls before the pair accelerated, taking Glamorgan past 200 and to 230-1 by tea.

The Glamorgan captain completed his century in the first over after the interval, nudging two runs off Cook to reach three figures from 142 deliveries.

Tribe later matched him, crashing a boundary to bring up his own hundred from 206 balls.

Essex looked wayward in the middle session but bowled better in the latter stages, as they responded through Matt Critchley. His short ball surprised captain Carlson and brought an end to his impressive innings

Critchley then struck again five overs later dismissing Ben Kellaway for two, securing a third wicket and a valuable bowling bonus point for the visitors.

Ingram then arrived to a guard of honour as he began his final Championship innings of a Glamorgan career that has yielded more than 11,000 runs across all formats since 2015.

As the day drew to a close Ingram managed to find three boundaries on his way to 24 not out, while Tribe progressed to 135 not out as Glamorgan claimed their second bonus point concluding the opening day's play in cruise control.

Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson said: "[We are in a] strong position going into day two.

"We will try and bat for another couple of sessions tomorrow and see where we're at. We had to go through some periods where it was tough and then managed to kind of score decently quickly as well.

"Four-day cricket is a long game and you need to kind of set your stall out. It's going to be an emotional week for everyone involved. We've done the job of staying up and it'd be nice to finish on a win."

Essex Director of Cricket Chris Silverwood said: "I think it was a good tough day in the field.

"Obviously we expected the ball to do a little bit more than it did sort of early on there. Created a few chances but unfortunately it didn't go our way and we were made to pay for that, especially with Tribe.

"So credit to some good partnerships from them but I thought first session we stuck to it well, second session they got away from us a little bit with a good partnership, then third session we pulled it back there and looked dangerous just before that new ball."