Benny Leads The Fight But Northants Win
26 May 2012
Benny Howell led from the front as Gloucestershire made a real fight of the final day's play in the LV=County Championship match with Northamptonshire at Northampton.
Set an unlikely 390 to win when the hosts declared on their overnight score of 246-5, Gloucestershire battled to the last as the game went into its last hour.
Final pair Ian Saxelby and Liam Norwell stayed together for almost 12 overs before Norwell fell lbw to James Middlebrook. Saxelby finished unbeaten on 21.
Gloucestershire couldn't quite hold out and were dismissed for 268 right at the death to lose the game by 121 runs. Northants took 22 points and the visitors four.
Opener Howell top scored with 70, batting for two hours and 27 minutes and hitting 7 four and 2 sixes in the latest demonstration of the talent he hopes will win him a contract.
And there was another long innings from first innings centurion Hamish Marshall, who has hit form with a bang in the last two games.
The former Kiwi Test player added 61 to his 117 not out, also occupying the crease for well over two hours and hitting 8 four and a six.
Chris Dent had earlier contributed 38 to an opening stand of 101 with Howell, which looked to have laid the foundation for a draw.
Experienced off-spinner Middlebrook eventually wore down Gloucestershire's resistance, taking 5-63 from a marathon stint of 44.2 overs to add to his first innings century as an emergency opener.
He destroyed the middle order by dismissing Kane Williamson (10), Alex Gidman (4) and Marshall before adding the wicket of Ed Young in the final hour when he and Ian Saxelby were threatening to salvage a draw.
The disappointment for Gloucestershire was that all their batsmen faced at least 23 balls, with none able to play the really big innings necessary on the day.
But skipper Ales Gidman was far from despondent, telling this website: "The match was lost on first innings, not today.
"It proved a particularly bad toss to lose and, while that is not an excuse, it certainly made our job more difficult.
"The pitch was turning by the last day and there was also some reverse swing for the Northants bowlers so to extend the game as long as we did was a pretty good effort,
"We played some good cricket at times and it was a very tough way to lose. We reckoned there was about one and a half minutes left on the clock when our final wicket fell so there might have been one more over.
"Hamish Marshall batted beautifully again and is right back to his best form after what he would be first to admit have been a couple of poor years.
"All the bowlers came through the game fit and our confidence hasn't suffered because we competed well throughout the four days."
For more details on day four at Northampton click on Cricket then Match reports.
