Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol (day four)
Gloucestershire 237: Bracey 113 & 359-5 dec: Hammond 118, Bracey 104*
Derbyshire 278: Price 6-45 & 105: Andersson 35; Sai Kishore 5-20
Gloucestershire (19 pts) beat Derbyshire (3 pts) by 213 runs
Sai Kishore bowled Gloucestershire to a 213-run victory over Derbyshire in a dramatic finale to the County Championship Second Division match at the Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol.
Gloucestershire’s overseas recruit claimed 5-20 from 18 overs as hapless Derbyshire, set 319 to win, were skittled for 105 inside 39 overs in the final session.
Ed Middleton weighed in with 2-17 and Ollie Price 3-59 as spin accounted for all 10 wickets. It represented a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the home side, who had been 37-5 on the first day.
Gloucestershire had earlier added a further 210 runs, Miles Hammond and James Bracey scoring 118 and 104 not out respectively and staging a mammoth fourth-wicket partnership of 165 in a second innings total of 359-5 declared.
Bracey became the first Gloucestershire player to register two hundreds in a first class match since Alex Gidman achieved the feat in a game at Archdeacon Meadow, Gloucester in 2007.
Bottom-of-the-table Gloucestershire collected 19 points to end a sequence of six straight defeats. Their two wins this season have both come against Derbyshire, who left Bristol with four points.
Requiring early wickets when play resumed with Gloucestershire 149-3, Derbyshire let themselves down in the field, Shoaib Bashir putting down Bracey off his own bowling when he had scored five and Matt Montgomery fumbling a return catch to afford Hammond a life on 77.
Gloucestershire’s fourth-wicket pair took advantage, staging a hundred partnership from 143 deliveries to stamp their authority. Bracey went to his second half-century of the match from 75 balls, while Hammond turned a delivery from Jack Morley down to fine leg and scampered two to raise his third first-class hundred of the season and his eighth in all from 182 deliveries.
Derbyshire took the new ball and recalled seamers Ben Aitchison and Brett Randell. But Bracey and Hammond advanced the score to 268-3 at lunch.
Having ushered Gloucestershire to safety, Hammond clipped a ball from Martin Andersson to mid-wicket where Montgomery terminated an innings characterised by a sensible mix of defence and attack.
Bracey then followed his team-mate to three figures, achieving his fifth hundred of the season via 143 balls with seven fours and two sixes to prompt the declaration. In doing so, he became the first Gloucestershire wicketkeeper to post twin hundreds in a match since Harry Smith in 1919.
Required to score at a notional seven an over, Derbyshire ambition extended no further than survival as Gloucestershire opened up with spin at both ends and close fielders surrounding the bat.
Certainly, East Midlands nerves were jangling after Kishore claimed two wickets in as many balls in the first over after tea, the India international pinning Harry Came lbw and then bowling Montgomery to set the tone.
When Kishore, who was extracting turn from the Bristol Pavilion end, had Wayne Madsen held at second slip soon afterwards, the visitors were 32-3 and under pressure. Worse followed for Derbyshire, Mohammed Bin Naeem playing early to a delivery that kept low and falling lbw to Price.
Derbyshire were 41-6 and in a tailspin when Aneurin Donald and Brooke Guest were bowled by Kishore in the space of three deliveries, the slow left-armer celebrating a five-for inside eight overs.
Ed Middleton replaced Price at the Ashley Down Road end and had Aitchison snaffled by Price at second slip with the score 76-7. The only batter to offer sustained resistance, Andersson was drawn forward by Middleton and feathered a catch to first slip, departing for 35 as the home side closed in.
Price trapped Jack Morley in front and then pinned Randell to finish with match figures of 9-104 and spark wild celebrations among Gloucestershire players and supporters.
ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay.
