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Fascinators at the Festival are not only the hats

21 July 2016

Ladies Day at the Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Festival saw another absorbing tussle between bat and ball as Gloucestershire and Leicestershire wrestled for the initiative in their Championship fixture.

The visitors began the day 61 runs in arrears, and established a first innings lead of 35 despite five wickets for David Payne. The last, on the stroke of lunch, left Gloucestershire a potential 69 overs to bat in the day and when rain forced the players off 20 minutes after tea they were 133-4, 98 runs ahead.

The steady flow of batsmen to and from the pavilion on the first day suggested Gloucestershire would have hoped to keep Leicestershire within range on first innings if the prevailing conditions remained in the morning session, and it was David Payne and Craig Miles who ensured that was the case.

Both bowled from the College Lawn end, with Payne continuing to show the rhythm which saw him pick up two wickets on Wednesday evening. Angus Robson took 24 balls to get the one run he needed for a patient half century, and 50 minutes had passed when Craig Miles' first delivery of the day found the edge and Klinger took the catch at first slip.

His departure for 57 accelerated the end of the Leicestershire innings, and Miles had also removed Eckersley for 35 - a gentle catch for Marshall at mid wicket - before the Foxes were ahead on the scoreboard.

Norwell and Shaw had plugged away without success at the Chapel end when Payne returned for a second spell and mopped up the last three wickets in 16 deliveries. He trapped McKay and Jones lbw, his third and fourth such victims in the innings, and then sealed figures of 5-36 by bowling Charlie Shreck for a duck. It left Ben Raine 33 not out but the 96 runs Leicestershire added to their overnight score had still given them a lead of 35.

The cricket continued to fascinate another big Festival crowd, and the corporate guests were still enjoying a relaxed lunch as Chris Dent survived a big appeal for a catch at the wicket in Clint McKay's first over.

He avoided a pair, and in the opening 12 overs batted exclusively against McKay while Tavare, whose foot movement slowly looked more organised, took on Jones and Raine at the other end as the pitch remained one which offered encouragement to the bowlers.

Dent worked McKay off his hip just beyond the reach of Raine at mid wicket with Gloucestershire still behind overall, but when he was replaced by Shreck and the batsmen had eventually changed ends Tavare, frustratedly,found Cosgrove's hands at second slip.

He made 18 and had seen Gloucestershire into the lead, although as we'd seen so often before in the match one wicket quickly brought more. Graeme van Buuren - presented with his Gloucestershire cap during the lunch interval - was bowled by a big inswinger from Raine, and Dent fell to another smart slip catch by Cosgrove off Neil Dexter for 34.

The match remained one of fine margins, as was enforced by Leicestershire's employment of a short cover and a short extra cover to Dexter's modest medium pace. He had an lbw appeal against Hamish Marshall turned down, but by tea the Kiwi was also back in the pavilion, pushing forward to Dexter and Robson doing the rest at first slip.

At 100-4, Gloucestershire's lead was 65 although critically Michael Klinger was still there, grittily playing every ball on it's merit and picking off any boundaries he could from the rare loose deliveries offered by the Leicestershire attack.

By tea, he'd made an unbeaten 32, and when the players came off 20 minutes into the final session, he'd added 33 with Jack Taylor (13*) for the 5th wicket. Klinger will start Friday's play 43 not out, with Gloucestershire 98 runs ahead and Leicestershire needing six wickets to define their victory target, the extent of which may hinge on the Australian's innings.

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