Royal London One-Day Cup

Northants 217-6 Gloucestershire 215

GLOUCESTERSHIRE face another opportunity to earn a home tie in the quarter-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup at the County Ground today (Tuesday).

Yesterday Steven Crook helped Northamptonshire keep his side in the race for a 50-over quarter-final with an impressive bowling display.

Crook’s 4-35 helped bowl the already-qualified Gloucestershire out for just 215 and, despite a wobble, Northants got home by four wickets with nine overs to spare.

Benny Howell (80) and Gareth Roderick (57) made steady half-centuries but there was precious little else for Gloucestershire who were blown away having won the toss and they did well to pose 215 having been first 20-3 and then 140-7.

Howell and Roderick added 89 for the fourth wicket but, when well set, Howell sent his partner back looking for a sharp single and Roderick was run-out for 57.

An opening stand of 80 between Josh Cobb and David Willey got the Northants chase off to a solid start.

But Cobb's exit came in the middle of a three wickets for six runs collapse from the hosts. And from 111-1 they went to 170-6.

Captain Alex Wakley was on hand to solidify the sloppiness and carefully steer his side home, a straight six off Chris Dent being the pick of his strokes in a unbeaten 31. He and Kyle Coetzer – playing for the first time in the competition this season – added 47 for the seventh wicket to settle any nerves.

Cobb said: "James Fuller’s opening spell was one of the best we’ve faced in a long time and to come through that was a great effort."

Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson rued a sloppy performance, saying: "We didn’t start the game with a bang. We did well to get our innings back but then another mistake cost us.

"It’s easy to see where we messed up. We weren’t at the races, really. The first ten overs with the ball we did well and could have taken couple of wickets but we didn’t nail the first half with the bat."