Gloucestershire win after surprise set-up

Pace bowlers Will Gidman and James Fuller ripped through some frail Hampshire batting to earn Gloucestershire their second LV= County Championship win of the season inside three days at the Ageas Bowl.

In fact, with the first day washed out by rain, the match lasted only two days as Gloucestershire - after setting Hampshire 411 to win in 169 overs - won by 198 runs rather more easily than they could have anticipated following the surprise calculations between the captains.

Gidman's gentle medium pace earned him figures of 4 for 46 and Fuller, not much quicker, took 3 for 54 as Hampshire failed to rise to the challenge.

With both sides having only won once in seven Division Two matches, there was an urgency about play when it resumed today with Gloucestershire 349 for 7 from 96 overs but with time and opportunities running out. The visitors added a further 61 runs in 21 overs for the loss of Fuller and Craig Miles, both victims of Dimitri Mascarenhas, in attempting to accelerate.

Gloucestershire captain Michael Klinger called a halt at 410 for 9 with young wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick 45 not out and Mascarenhas, in his first Championship match of the season, taking 4 for 61.

At that point Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams responded by forfeiting his side's first innings and Klinger did the same to his team's second, leaving Hampshire five sessions and 10 overs to reach their mammoth target on an increasingly benign wicket.

But Hampshire were soon chasing a hopelessly lost cause, losing Adams in the second over to his fourth duck in five first-class innings and worse was to follow rapidly. Liam Dawson and Michael Carberry took the score to 63 before Fuller had Dawson caught at point and experienced South African Neil McKenzie departed without scoring at 66.

Carberry was leg before to Fuller at 68 and James Vince was caught down the legside by Roderick off Gidman to make Hampshire 74 for in the 30th over. The rest was processional; Sean Ervine was caught at the wicket off Miles at 88 before newcomer Sohail Tanvir and Adam Wheater put together a stand of 48 for the seventh to delay the inevitable.

Wheater hit eight boundaries in his 38 and Sohail produced a flurry of fours in his 37 while Mascarenhas hit Gidman for six on his way to his side's top score of 41.

Mascarenhas was last out at 212 attempting another big hit off Fuller, but by then Hampshire had been soundly beaten and Gloucestershire were left to savour an unlikely victory by such a big margin.