Gloucestershire win completes profitable festival

Gloucestershire 218 (Roderick 61, McKay 5-59) and 321 (Howell 102, Noema-Barnett 61, Klinger 60, Shreck 5-82) beat Leicestershire 215 (Cosgrove 74, Fuller 4-35) and 169 (Miles 3-27) by 155 runs
Scorecard

Gloucestershire dominated the final day of their LV= County Championship game at Cheltenham, beating Leicestershire by 155 runs to register back-to-back wins in a season at the picturesque college ground for the first time since 1998.

Having set the visitors 325 to win a four-day game for only the second time this summer, Gloucestershire were never in any danger of losing a contest - and they finally wrapped up victory shortly before tea.

Leicestershire, who are still rooted firmly to the foot of Division Two, have now lost eight Championship matches.

The visitors resumed on their overnight total of 11 without loss - but soon found themselves in trouble when Angus Robson and Ned Eckersley departed off successive balls from Craig Miles.

Robson had his off stump removed by Miles off the first ball of the 13th over and Eckersley edged the seamer to Michael Klinger at slip, off the next delivery.

Mark Cosgrove and Matt Boyce dropped anchor as Leicestershire swapped their run chase for survival. However, the introduction of Kieran Noema-Barnett brought about the downfall of Boyce, leg before wicket for 22 at 61 for 3 - and in the next over, Cosgrove was trapped lbw by Benny Howell's third ball of the innings.

To compound a bad morning for Leicestershire, Greg Smith edged James Fuller to Chris Dent at second slip to leave Leicestershire struggling at 77 for 5 at lunch.

If the morning session had been rewarding for Gloucestershire, the afternoon session was equally impressive, despite the efforts of Aadil Ali and Ben Raine. The pair came together when Leicestershire wicketkeeper Lewis Hill was brilliantly caught at gully, by sub Miles Hammond, off the bowling of Miles.

Ali, who made his Championship debut against Kent last week, led the way with Raine providing stern support until a slice of misfortune brought to an end their 54-run partnership for the seventh wicket.

Having hit Jack Taylor for a straight six, over long-off, Ali's next straight drive was deflected back onto the stumps at the non-striker's end, by Taylor, with Raine stranded out of his crease. Ali added another six, over midwicket, to move on to 41, but off the next ball holed out to Fuller at mid-off.

Jigar Naik followed next ball, caught at leg slip and though Charlie Shreck was dropped at slip by Klinger off Noema-Barnett in the 64th over, the game was over when Liam Norwell had Clint McKay caught behind for 18.