Glos beaten on a dramatic final day

SECOND-INNINGS batting collapse saw Gloucestershire succumb to a two-wicket defeat by Leicestershire in an exciting finish to their Rothesay County Championship Second Division match at Bristol.

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After conceding a first innings lead of 10, Gloucestershire came into day three on 88-2 and aiming to set a tough target for Leicestershire.

But a ruinous period of play for Gloucestershire - which on Saturday evening with the wicket of Ollie Price - continued into Sunday morning as they lost seven wickets for 31 runs, from 87-1 to 118-8, before a mini-recovery then took them to 152 all out, leaving Leicestershire 143 to win.

“A pretty unbelievable day,’ said Gloucestershire skipper Cameron Bancroft.

“Both teams went to and fro over the three days and sadly it wasn’t us on the winning end, but we gave it our all. I can’t fault our efforts.

“They bowled extremely well in the second innings; we fought really hard but it was challenging. 50 extra runs would have made a real difference but even with the score we had on the board we knew that if we bowled as well as we have done this season, we were going to give ourselves a chance.

“Dom [Goodman] is one of the favourites of the change rooms.

“He has had to wait for an opportunity to play and he bowled beautifully. He was such a big part of us getting as close as we did.