News

John Bracewell couldn't fault the effort of his Gloucestershire team after they lost a thrilling LV=County Championship match against Kent by two wickets with 14 balls remaining at Cheltenham.

Brendan Nash made 199 before he had to retire through exhaustion in a game that was nip-and-tuck for most of the final day before Kent eventually chased down a massive target of 411.

Reflecting on the defeat, Bracewell, the county's director of cricket, said: "We've got to get ourselves up the table, so we have to take these chances and we've got to become better at the little stuff.

"But I think it was a good game of cricket. I think it was a good declaration and had we controlled the middle session a bit better I think we would have won the game.

"But we lost a bit of control with that session and Brendan Nash batted very well. He used the angles very well and he used the slope. Having said that, I can't fault our guys' efforts over the day.

"They bowled hard, ran in well and tried to maintain pressure. Our accuracy wasn't quite good enough during that middle session."

Gloucestershire are back in action tomorrow with a sell-out Friends Life t20 game against Warwickshire, the first of three t20 matches at the Cheltenham Festival.

For more details of the final day against Kent click on Cricket and then Match Reports.