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Thriller ends in draw at Wantage Road

10 April 2022

Ryan Higgins almost led his side to victory in the final overs as a thrilling LV=Insurance clash between Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire ended in a draw.

Higgins, who’d earlier made 139 as Gloucestershire set the hosts 299 to win, then struck in successive balls to remove first Lewis McManus and then Gareth Berg as the nail-biting chase came down to the final over.

Prior to his double strike Gloucestershire had six fielders on the boundary as they attempted to defend  in the wake of an onslaught led by Rob Keogh’s 74 and Josh Cobb’s 36, but they finished with five slips in a late quest for victory.

However, Higgins (3-47) spilt a drive by Tom Taylor with four balls left and Northamptonshire hung on to deny the visitors a win in their first game in Division one of the Championship since 2005.

Northamptonshire must also wait for their first win at this level since 2004, despite Saif Zaib’s 65 and Keogh’s heroics for the second time in the match having left them needing a run a ball 66 ahead of the breathless finish.

Earlier, Ben Sanderson took three wickets including that of Higgins, returning 5-66 to set up the thrilling run chase.

Gloucestershire began on 326-6 with centurion Ryan Higgins still at the crease, but perhaps conscious they would be a bowler light due to Nassem Shah’s shoulder injury, they showed precious little sign of wanting to press on towards a declaration.

Higgins struck one early boundary but was otherwise becalmed by Sanderson who trapped the all-rounder lbw for 139, before having Taylor caught behind.

Zafar Gohar struck a glorious on-drive to go to 50, but Nathan Buck pinned him in front and Sanderson had Shah caught in the deep to complete his fifer.

Northamptonshire skipper Ricardo Vasconcelos got the chase for 299 off to a flyer with a couple of glorious drives and it wasn’t long before Gloucestershire  turned to Gohar in search of inspiration. Bowling into the rough outside left-hander Emilio Gay’s off-stump, Gohar unsettled the academy graduate.

Taylor then struck on the stroke of lunch finding the edge of Vasconcelos’s bat to give James Bracey his sixth catch of the game.

On the resumption, Gohar and Taylor cranked up the pressure with 36 dot balls, Gay top-edging an attempted sweep off the spinner just beyond the clutches of a fielder in a bid to break the shackles.

Pressure told when Gay nicked one through to give Bracey, while Curran took 22 balls to get of the mark, making a skittish 18 before Gohar trapped him lbw.

Gloucestershire though couldn’t seize the moment, Keogh’s presence bringing a new calmness to Zaib as the pair regrouped before unfurling a string of boundaries immediately after tea which brought 40 runs in six overs as they began to sense an unlikely win.

An eighth four took Zaib to a seventh first-class 50, but Miles Hammond interrupted the carnage somehow clinging onto a skier to end the all-rounder’s innings on 65

Keogh kept up the charge hoisting Gohar over square leg for six to reach a second 50 of the match before the spinner gave him a life on 57 failing to hold on to a sharp caught and bowled opportunity.

The reprieve appeared decisive as he and Josh Cobb rattled up a 50-stand, but with victory in sight Gohar got Keogh to play too soon and chip a catch to mid-off.

Cobb assumed the mantle, clubbing Gohar over long-on, only to perish trying to repeat the shot before the dramatic finale unfolded.

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