Gloucestershire 294 & 237 beat Northants 161 & 326 by 44 runs
Gloucestershire claimed their first win in the county championship since 1st September 2007 with a nervy win at Northampton.
Glos required five wickets on the final day and it took until after lunch for a stubborn Northants to be bowled out. The margin of 44 runs was extremely closer than would have been expected and is testament to Northants recovery from 101-5 on the third evening.
Only Snell, Porterfield and the injured Saxelby failed to bowl in the second innings as Glos struggled with three seamers out of action.
The hope was to rattle through the wickets early and the 116 stand was removed without too much further damage as Vikram Banerjee claimed David Willey for 47, before an injury-defying spell from Alex Gidman removed Andrew Hall for 91 to really turn the tide in the Shire's favour. Hall was taking the game away from the Glos and his wicket ended a partnership of 65 and enabled the fielders to breathe again.
Northants managed the chase well and built useful partnerships to chip away at the target and spread the tension amongst the fielders who sensed the game slipping away at several stages. But the Shire managed to find wickets at crucial times and the new ball finished the job, with Steve Kirby and Jon Lewis - who bowled 44 overs between them - taking three wickets each.
A wicket on the stroke of lunch all but sealed the win, as Kirby broke another stubborn stand of 38 and a huge sigh of relief was let out by the Glos who had feared defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory.
Gloucestershire deserved the win after dominating proceedings for two and a half days of the match, and determinedly soldiering to ten second innings wickets with only three recognised bowlers.
A fantastic achievement from a side that have showed the cricket they are capable of before this match. It is only one victory, however, but hopefully the players will now be refreshed of what is required to win a four-day match and the mediocrity of past seasons can be laid to rest.
Official report: www.gloscricket.co.uk
Tell me I'm not dreaming, please. I took out life membership in Septermber 2007 and this is our first CC win since then.
ReplyDeletePigsty Hill
Great day. As tense as England Oz at Edgbaston in 05 for me. Fantastic effort from the fit bowlers, and they say 4 day county cricket is boring!!
ReplyDeleteMarco Van Digby
It wouldn't be Glos if we didn't make it tough for ourselves! Hall was the big wicket (incidently I didn't even realise Gidman was ok to bowl after his back spasm the other night - just as well he could!) ..although only once it was left to Panesar and their no.11 to score 50 did I believe we'd definitely win! :-)
ReplyDeleteHow bad must Porterfield be at bowling if he didn't get a go?!!
At least this game proved we don't need Franklin to be our star player if we're going to win matches ...good news for when he flies off with NZ.
Promotion beckons?
ReplyDeleteA great day for the Shire, I feel so great this evening that we've dug out a victory.
ReplyDeleteAnd I dare say with a full attack this victory would have been far more comprehensive.
We've proved we can compete in the four-day game and hopefully we can sort the batting out and start picking up max points; there's no reason we can't be up there come the end of the season.
Next match - Leicester at home - is crucial. A match we should be winning.
To be fair, given reasonable luck with the weather, we'd have beaten Surrey as well.
ReplyDeletePigsty Hill