High tempo day sets up teasing run chase
24 July 2018
Five wickets for 56 before lunch and a Gloucestershire second innings which rattled along at four runs as over produced another entertaining day at the College Ground and left the prospect of an exciting finale to the Championship match against Durham.
Gloucestershire made good use of the second new ball to secure a first innings lead of 87 despite a gutsy 147 from Durham skipper Tom Latham, and then batted purposefully from the start to make 252 second time around. The total extended their advantage to 339, Kieran Noema-Barnett (69*) and Ryan Higgins (42) adding 84 for the sixth wicket after Gloucestershire had lost three wickets for one run just after lunch.
Durham were therefore left with 108 overs to make 340 to win, 12 of those overs at the end of a day in which 15 wickets had already fallen. At the close they were 35-0.
Watch head coach Richard Dawson's view in the match position here:
CLOSE OF PLAY REACTION: Head coach Richard Dawson after day 3 against @DurhamCricket who will start the final day 35-0 chasing 340 to win pic.twitter.com/555KeMe3M1
— Gloucestershire CCC (@Gloscricket) July 24, 2018
Gloucestershire began the third day on target for their biggest bonus point haul of the season, and needing to wrap up Durham's first innings quickly to gain a useful advantage. Visiting skipper Tom Latham looked to be their biggest obstacle, and the left hander was to extend his stay at the crease beyond six hours until he was last out.
Before he finally decided to release the shackles, Latham saw a steady stream to team mates make their way to and from the pavilion. Craig Miles bowled Poynter in the fifth over of the day, and then Mark Wood called Latham for a badly judged single and was run out at the bowler's end by Matt Taylor's direct hit.
Ryan Higgins' introduction threatened to bring matters to a swift conclusion, as Salisbury edged to Noema-Barnett at slip and Harding departed first ball, well caught low down by Roderick. Rushworth survived the hat trick and after a period marshalling the strike, Latham got underneath an attempted pull to mid wicket off David Payne and found the safe hands of Benny Howell on the boundary.
The brisk pace of affairs left Gloucestershire 35 minutes batting until lunch, a period during which they lost both Hammond and Bracey but still managed to score 50 runs in only nine overs.
Hammond edged Rushworth to Stokes at fourth slip and Bracey lasted only two balls, coming down late on a delivery that took out his leg stump. Howell also survived a big lbw appeal from Rushworth but undeterred he and skipper Dent continued to play in a fashion that suggested Gloucestershire would not be short of time to win the match.
From 15-2, the pair had stabilised the innings adding 70 before the familiar Cheltenham pattern of wickets falling in clusters threw the result back into the melting pot. Howell (43) edged the high stepping Salisbury to Latham in the slips, Dent (33) fell to a catch at the wicket off the same bowler and having passed 4,000 first class runs in the first innings, Roderick followed three half centuries with a duck, caught behind off Stokes.
Playing an extra bowler had pushed both Higgins and Noema-Barnett up one spot in the batting order, and here they embraced that greater responsibility. Stokes was particularly lively, especially when dropping short with three close catchers on the leg side. Higgins cut him over the slips and Noema-Barnett's pull to deep backward square was the first six of the match.
Three Higgins boundaries in an over from left arm spinner Harding forced Durham skipper Latham to think outside the box and Will Smith proved the standbreaker, Higgins clipping a low return catch after edging the off spinner's first ball low past slip. Gloucestershire had still scored 136 in the session, but now only four wickets remained to push the lead beyond 300.
Predictably in that situation Durham turned back to Stokes, who took two of three wickets that went down in eight overs after tea. Miles and Matt Taylor took the tally of catches for 'keeper Poynter to four, and leg spinner Clark turned one appreciably to hit Payne's off stump.
In between, Noema-Barnett reached a second fifty of the season from 96 balls, and with George Drissell showing excellent temperament the last wicket added 32 important runs until Drissell pushed at Smith and edged to Stokes at slip.
It meant Gloucestershire's second innings had yielded 252 in barely two sessions batting, and it left Durham a potentially awkward finale to the day to negotiate. Steel remained despite a big Gloucestershire appeal for a catch by Roderick off Miles, and Durham closed on 35-0 with both sides believing a win is still possible on the final day.
