Miles haul leaves Lancashire in trouble at Bristol

Craig Miles claimed his first ten-wicket haul as Gloucestershire enjoyed the better of the third day of their LV= County Championship match against Lancashire at Bristol.

The Gloucestershire seamer finished with figures of 5-60 and 10-121 for the match as Lancashire were bowled out for 253 in their second innings, setting the home side 252 to win and achieve the double over the Division Two leaders.

Karl Brown (56) top-scored for Lancashire with his second fifty of the match, but the Red Rose lost wickets at regular intervals and, at times, were responsible for their own downfall.

Gloucestershire started their fourth-innings run-chase badly, losing Will Tavare to Kyle Jarvis with the eighth ball of the innings, but the hosts finished the third day on 26/1 with Chris Dent (10) and Michael Klinger (15) establishing a good platform to push for victory tomorrow.

Paul Horton can consider himself very unlucky to have been judged lbw to Miles in the third over of the day, as the Lancashire opener was struck high on the pads with the score at 18/1. Having been rather unfortunate to lose Horton early on in the day, the loss of Alviro Petersen (6) was a crushing blow to Lancashire’s innings, although the South-African batsman played a loose shot to pick out Ian Cockbain in the covers, as Miles collected another scalp for his collection.

Brown made back-to-back fifties for Lancashire in this game.

Any more than two wickets in the first session would have left Lancashire in a difficult position, but Brown showed real maturity by, once again, weathering this early storm, establishing a 77-run partnership with Prince for the third wicket.

Runs did not come easily, but the real issue was batting enough time to ensure that Gloucestershire could not usurp them and chase a reasonably easy target, a fate that seems to have been set in motion by the end of the third day.

Brown and Prince (43) achieved a fifty partnership just before lunch as Lancashire reached the interval on 93/2 in a fairly strong position. However, what followed after lunch was a combination of reckless strokeplay and decision-making as both Brown and Prince were back in the pavilion in quick succession.

Both Prince and Brown had done so well to get to lunch unscathed, but a suicidal decision to take a quick single resulted in the South-African being run-out by a direct-hit from Miles, a wicket which exposed Lancashire in circumstances which did not warrant such a reckless decision.

Brown’s patience was rewarded with back-to-back half-centuries, reaching this milestone in 166 balls with nine fours as Lancashire sought to recover from the needless dismissal of their veteran batsman.

But Lancashire’s rut continued as captain Steven Croft fell for no score when he was out lbw to Miles – this was a much more convincing appeal from the Gloucestershire seamer – and the visitors lost their second wicket for the addition of no runs as they slumped to 116/4.

In the first innings Brown failed to kick-on after going to fifty, playing-on to his stumps as Miles claimed five wickets and Howell collected the important wicket of Brown (56) on this occasion when he edged behind to Cameron Herring, who was keeping wicket in place of Gareth Roderick, with the score at 138/5.

Given the circumstances, Lancashire were desperate for their Australian all-rounder James Faulkner to deliver a good innings and he showed early promise with a sumptuous drive through the covers. This shot suggested that Faulkner was out to score runs and score them quickly, a risky approach given the fact that Lancashire could hardly afford to suffer another setback before tea.

Faulkner (4) attempted to replicate this shot through the covers and made good contact to a delivery from Matt Taylor (1-33), but Benny Howell took a stunning one-handed catch to remove the Australian as Lancashire were left dejected at 147/6.

This wicket came just three overs after the loss of Brown and left Lancashire in a desperate position in the afternoon session. Every run was gold dust to the visitors, who were fearful of playing extravagant drives after what had happened to Faulkner.

Alex Davies and Jordan Clark built a strong partnership before tea to help steady the innings and this partnership proved to be vital in helping Lancashire to post a competitive target, especially as they went on to lose their last three wickets for 18 runs as their tail-enders failed to replicate their success from the first innings.

Their partnership worth 53 runs for the seventh-wicket stand gave Lancashire hope and they reached the fifty partnership with the final ball of the afternoon session to restore parity to an evenly fought game of cricket.

Jordan Clark played another mature innings for Lancashire before falling for 48.

However, seven balls into the evening session Gloucestershire claimed a vital breakthrough, removing Davies for 28 as Howell (2-53) collected his second scalp of the innings. The Lancashire wicket-keeper cracked the ball to Tavare at mid-wicket, who took a good low catch to leave the Red Rose struggling once again on 200/7.

Clark has demonstrated immense maturity in his last two games for Lancashire, playing well under difficult circumstances and he can be pleased with his contribution to the game as he added 48 before falling in disappointing fashion with a wafted drive outside the off-stump, one which he edged to Dent to give Liam Norwell (1-61) his first wicket of the game.

Glen Chapple looked set to play another cameo, while Tom Bailey gave another tremendous display for a tail-end batsman, scoring 27 not out as Lancashire lost their last three wickets cheaply in comparison to the first innings.

Lancashire’s 41-year-old sage showed early intent with a boundary off Norwell, but three balls later he picked out Jack Taylor at deep extra cover as he fell for six to Craig Miles, who claimed his 100th first-class wicket in a match-winning display for the home side.

Bailey had played superbly for his runs and has proven to be a more than useful lower-order batsman since his introduction into the first team, but he was left stranded as Jarvis feathered an edge through to Herring to give Miles his fifth wicket of the innings and his tenth victim of the match, setting the home side 252 runs to win.

With 17 overs left in the day, Gloucestershire had nothing to gain but everything to lose if they suffered early setbacks in their run-chase and initially it looked as though Lancashire would finish a largely disappointing day in the ascendancy as Jarvis clipped the bails with a corker of a delivery to remove Tavare for no score.

But Lancashire’s brief elation was stemmed by a sturdy display from first-innings centurion Klinger and the left-handed opener Dent – who recorded an impressive century the last time these two sides met at Old Trafford - as Gloucestershire finished on 26/1, needing 226 more runs to win.

Photos: Morning Session 

Photos: Afternoon Session
Photos: Evening Session