A nigh-on perfect morning’s bowling from Leicestershire’s in-form seamers saw the visitors record an ultimately nerve-shredding win at Bristol and strengthen their position at the top of County Championship Division Two as they stumbled over the line amid high tension in their chase of 143.
A ruinous period of play for Gloucestershire, starting on Saturday evening with the wicket of Ollie Price and continuing into Sunday morning, saw them lose seven wickets for just 31 runs, the home side’s fall starting at 87-1 and ending with them in dire straits at 118-8 after little more than an hour of day three. A mini-recovery then took them to 152 all out, leaving Leicestershire 143 to win.
Gloucestershire lost nightwatch Dom Goodman for a duck in the first over of the day, bowled by the impressive Ian Holland. The former Hampshire man thus extended his lead at the top of the division two wicket-takers’ charts with his 19th scalp of the season, later wrapping up the innings to take his tally to a round 20.
After that early dismissal, there were a couple of close calls against Cam Bancroft before he fell lbw to the persevering van Beek for a joint innings-high 43, and the very next ball Miles Hammond was caught at second slip by Louis Kimber off Ben Green.
Two more key wickets came and went in the blink of an eye, first innings star James Bracey chipping van Beek to Holland at mid-on and then Cam Green beautifully caught off an inside edge by fellow countryman Pete Handscomb diving away to his left behind the stumps.
The first hour had seen outstanding bowling by three of the Foxes’ seamers, who did not concede a boundary until 70 minutes into the day, at which point Graeme van Buuren dispatched a Josh Hull full toss for four in the beanpole seamer’s first over of the day. Two balls later however, the former captain was caught by Ben Green at first slip at the second attempt.
Some agricultural hitting from Zaman Akhter saw Gloucestershire stage a recovery of sorts, but Hull yorked him to limit the damage and Holland returned to wrap things up, leaving the Foxes’ batters to face one over before lunch.
That was enough time for Dom Goodman to trap Rishi Patel in front off the third ball of the innings, the opener having returned to action after recovering from a thumb injury sustained when fielding in just the third over of the first match of the season. Patel did not much enjoy his return on an untypically lively Gloucester pitch, scoring just one run across his two innings and his dismissal meant nine wickets had fallen for 64 runs before lunch.
Life was no easier for the batters after lunch, when Dom Goodman, fresh from five in the first innings, rattled through the Foxes’ top order, including reducing them to 0 for 2 after the first over as Rehan Ahmed was caught at cover by Cam Green after a three-ball innings that comprised a play-and-miss, a near run out and a wicket.
Lewis Hill and Sol Budinger nudged the score up to 26 before, Bracey snaffled Hill’s feathered edge. And it was 35-4 when Price held onto a cracker low down in the slips to see the back of Budinger. Ian Holland, seven wickets and a fifty in the match, could not hang around long, falling in Josh Shaw’s first over to leave the innings in tatters at 42-5 and 101 still needed.
Skipper Handscomb and keeper Ben Cox, who had been hit in the chest and taken to hospital for a scan on Saturday, steadied the ship as the sun appeared and the pitch eased. Ball by ball, run by run, they advanced, although not without their fair share of scares. They had reached 100 when Singh Dale breached Handscomb’s defences to revive the home side’s fortunes and van Beek hung around with Ben Cox to add another 18 before he went the same way.
Tea was taken with 22 runs needed and three wickets in hand, Cox holding things together on 41. The two Bens showed real composure on the resumption, steadily ticking off the runs until, with eight needed, Cox was caught behind, also off Singh Dale.
Consecutive maidens ratcheted up the tension but Green rounded off a good personal game by hitting the winning runs to complete a hard-fought victory, meaning Gloucestershire have still not won at Bristol since September 2022, a run that now stretches to 13 games.
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