Alleyne's wisdom questioned

Mark Alleyne, the Gloucestershire skipper must be ruing his decision not to enforce the follow on as they finished the day at 11 for 2 when bad light curtailed play with 10 overs to go. Earlier in the day, Essex were bowled out for 174 with a deficit of exact 150 in a reckless diplay by its batsmen except opener Paul Grayson and Tim Mason who scored 56 and 24 not out respectively.Michael Ball took 3 for 32 while Ben Gannon took 3 for 61 for Gloucestershire.

Earlier Gannon partnered with Jeremy snape to make 58 to carry Gloucestershire to 324 in their first innings. Ronnie Irani and Ashley Cowan took one wicket each in the Gloucestershire's second innings by claiming Windows and Dominic Hewson repectively.