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Taylor strikes on opening day with pink ball

20 June 2018

Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire had a busy opening day of the pink-ball Specsavers County Championship match at Wantage Road.

Northants were all out for 282 in their first innings with Matt Taylor the pick of the Gloucestershire bowlers with 4 wickets to his name. 

After being bowled out with 13 overs left in the day, Northants struck in the final over of the day with Steven Crook trapping Chris Dent lbw for 11 and Gloucestershire closed 25 for 1.

Until that wicket, Gloucestershire had fought back well into the day after Northants made a steady start earlier on in the day. But two mini-collapses prevented that early initiative being converted into a commanding total.

Duckett made a positive start for Northants to reach fifty in just 44 balls with nine fours - five of them in successive deliveries in the third over of the game bowled by Matt Taylor - for his first half-century in the Championship this season.

But Taylor returned and Duckett chased a full wide delivery to edge behind for 52, Ricardo Vasconcelos steered a catch to first slip off the same bowler for a nine ball duck and Alex Wakely was caught and bowled by Kieran Noema-Barnett for just 3 as Northants lost three wickets for 13 runs in five overs.

Just after lunch, Procter went to fifty in 93 balls with nine fours but having got to 70, top-edged a pull against Taylor and James Bracey ran back from slip to claim the catch. It was Taylor’s third wicket, and he went on to claim 4 for 70 in 12 overs.

The wicket of Porcter brought about the second Northants collapse as three wickets went down for 34 runs in eight overs. Adam Rossington lazily cut Taylor to first slip and Levi, having struck 13 fours in reaching 63 with a number of eye-catching strokes, pushed forward and was caught behind giving Ryan Higgins his first wicket before Northants settled to 247 for 6 at tea.

Saif Zaib fell in the first over of the evening session, trapped lbw by Noema-Barnett and after Rory Kleinveldt received a far more questionable lbw decision to fall for 9, Higgins removed the final two wickets - Crook caught a slip and Brett Hutton caught behind - to finish with 3 for 52.

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