Northamptonshire suffered their first defeat of the season as Gloucestershire claimed a 256 run victory on Day 4.
Gloucestershire pace bowler Marchant de Lange led the charge with three wickets to set up Gloucestershire’s first Vitality County Championship victory since September 2022.
Northamptonshire resumed this morning on 144 for two, needing 414 more runs to win, or more realistically to bat out the whole day to secure a draw.
Luke Procter continued his fine form in the County Championship and led strongly with a gritty from 60 from 151 balls, but the Northamptonshire captain will be annoyed with his dismissal after chipping one up off the back of his bat from the bowling of Tom Price.
For a while a draw looked a distinct possibility as Indian international Karun Nair and George Bartlett shared a fluent stand of 83 in 24 overs. Karun and Bartlett played well for 61 and 42 respectively but the second new ball proved decisive as Josh Shaw (2-56) and de Lange (3-58), bowling a feisty spell, removed both set batters as Northamptonshire lost three wickets for nine runs in 5.4 overs.
With Ajeet Singh Dale (3-69) mopping up the tail, Northamptonshire fell to their first defeat of the season, losing their final five wickets for just 35 runs and finished 301 all out and defeated by 256 runs.
Northamptonshire are back in County Championship action on Friday where they visit Derbyshire and will be looking to bounce straight back and gain their first win of the season.