Glo’sters start season with exciting draw at Northampton
RYAN Higgins missed a caught and bowled in the final over 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 nailbiting 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 on their return to Division One for the first time 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 had the all-rounder lbw for 139, before having Taylor caught behind.
Zafar Gohar struck a glorious ondrive to go to 50, but Nathan Buck pinned him in front and Sanderson had Shah caught in the deep to complete his five-for.
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 lefthander Emilio Gay’s off-stump, he unsettled the academy graduate.
Matt Taylor 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 to Bracey, while Curran took 22 balls to get off the mark, making 18 before Gohar had 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, 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 clinging on to a skier to end the allrounder’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.