NORTHAMPTONSHIRE took just 32 minutes on the third day to wrap up a 10 wicket victory over Gloucestershire at Wantage Road to claim their first win in the Specsavers County Championship division two this season.

And the defeat was one that Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson just had to grin and bear.

Having resisted on the second evening to take the game into day three, Gloucestershire could last only another 17 balls to be bowled out for 250, leaving a target of only 31 that Ben Duckett knocked off himself in just four overs.

Brett Hutton removed the final two wickets within three balls to finish with 8 for 57 - the third-best figures for Northants this century.

Matt Taylor only added a single to his overnight 37 before pushing at a length ball and edging to second slip where Richard Levi dived to his right to take a sharp catch. Number 11 Chris Liddle then lost his off stump for a duck leaving Craig Miles stranded on 38 not out.

The chase was over very quickly as Duckett played an emphatic extra-cover drive off Miles, a flick through midwicket and two top-edged pulls over the wicketkeeper’s head.

Another pull off Miles took Northants to within one hit of victory before an outside edge found the third man fence to complete the win.

Afterwards, Dawson said: “We’ve been outplayed. We didn’t exert any pressure with the ball, We bowled two sides of the wicket and the wrong length.

"We were a bit more up for the fight in the second innings but, on day one, we were behind the eight ball and couldn’t recover from that.

"We’ve got the T20 coming up but also the Cheltenham festival and we want to be playing some good cricket in the Championship there so by no means will we just be focussing on T20."

Gloucestershire’s Vitality T20 Blast competition opens with a derby against Somerset at Taunton on Friday week and continues with fixtures against Middlesex on Sunday July 8, Kent on July 11 and Somerset again, at the Brightside Ground, Bristol, on Friday July 13 before the county decamp north for the Cheltenham Festival from Monday July 16.