Gloucestershire back to winning ways

Steve Kirby finished with seven wickets in the match as Gloucestershire recorded an overdue victory against Northants

Gloucestershire secured their first LV= County Championship win since August 2007 as they held on to defeat Northamptonshire by 44 runs on a nervy final day.

Northamptonshire began the day on 200 for five and looked set to cash in on a depleted Gloucestershire attack with frontline seamers James Franklin and Ian Saxelby both restricted by injury.

But Jon Lewis and Steve Kirby rallied with the pressure on to claim the final four wickets for 43 runs and record an overdue win.

Andrew Hall (50 not out) and David Willey (43 not out) had helped the home side recover from 102 for five with an unbeaten 98-run stand last night that had given them hope of victory.

But they could add just 18 to their overnight score before Gloucestershire claimed their first victim.

Hall had twice driven Lewis crisply through the covers, but with left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee finding encouragement from the footmarks, Willey was finding runs hard to come by.

After spending half an hour adding only four to his overnight 43, Willey’s patience ran out and he slogged Banerjee to a diving Will Porterfield at mid-wicket.

Steven Crook began positively for Northamptonshire, causing Gloucestershire captain Alex Gidman to turn to Franklin for the first time in the 66th over.

The New Zealander looked unthreatening off a short run, as he showed signs of being troubled by his hamstring complaint.

The 50-run partnership between Crook and Hall took 60 balls, and with the target below 100 Gidman was desperate to manufacture a breakthrough.

Andrew Hall gave Northants hope with a superb 91, but his dismissal proved to be a turning point

With his sore back having seemingly eased, the skipper was able to bowl his first over of the match and he immediately struck, crucially removing Hall lbw for 91.

David Lucas defended resolutely after arriving at the crease and built another useful partnership with Crook.

The Australian was now striking the ball cleanly as he cantered to a half century from 76 balls, which included six fours.

The new ball was taken by Gidman and initially only served to accelerate the scoring rate as Northamptonshire closed on the unlikeliest of victories.

However, on the stroke of lunch and with the score on 321, Kirby produced a good away-swinger, which Lucas (13) edged to substitute fielder Craig Spearman.

After lunch, Lewis then removed the last major obstacle when he ended Crook’s fine innings, bowled by a full-length swinging delivery for 55.

Last man David Wigley then became Kirby’s seventh victim of the match when he fended off to Porterfield at third slip without scoring.

Monty Panesar remained unbeaten on five and despite their 326 being the highest score of the match Northamptonshire fell short.