Gloucestershire wasted a glorious opportunity to put the pedal to the floor and really accelerate their division 2 challenge with a disappointing draw against a stubborn Northamptonshire at the Brightside ground.
After basically bowling Glamorgan out in a single session on day 4 to win their previous championship match, Glos would have fancied needing only 7 Northants wickets on the final day to take a second successive 4 day match. Instead the combined efforts of Payne, Miles, Shaw, Gourmet Burger and the reincarnation of Jim Laker and Tony Lock (that will be Van Buuren and Taylor) could only manage 5 wickets as the pitch flattened out and died and Northants dug in deep to salvage an impressive draw.
After bowling Northants out for 176 and then racking up 418 in their first innings this definitely goes down as a missed opportunity for Glos. Given a day and a bit to bowl a team out you would expect to win 9 times out 10. Given the spectacular win the bowlers produced from out of thin air against Glamorgan it would be petty to criticise too much.
Instead Glos fans can sit back and enjoy not only the second coming of Lock and Laker, but the return of Maxy Klinger. Such are the expectations on Klinger after last summer that despite a 6 week break from the game the official Glos website described his innings of 140 as not "hitting the heights".
The Jessop Tavern View were happy enough. At the top of the innings Chris Dent also consolidated his reputation as a feast or famine opener with a well constructed 93. Dent has now gone passed 500 runs for the summer. An opener's life will always be such that big scores will follow low scores. Such is life against the new ball.
Despite this missed opportunity, the future looks particularly rosy at the Brightside ground. Or bright, some might say.
Day 4 highlights:
Day 3 highlights:
Day 2 highlights:
Day 1 highlights:
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