Durham beat Gloucestershire by 10 wickets inside six balls and 105 seconds
Durham defeated Gloucestershire by 10 wickets inside six balls and 105 seconds at Chester-le-Street on day four of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match. The win was Durham's seventh in 10 Division Two matches and took another big step towards promotion back to the top flight and the Division Two title.
Gloucestershire 137: Aldridge 5-16 & 250: Hammond 58; Aldridge 4-47 Durham 384: Bedingham 122; Langridge 3-89 & 4-0 Durham (22 pts) defeated Gloucestershire (3 pts) by 10 wickets. With second-placed Kent and third-placed Northamptonshire playing each other in this round of matches, Durham's seventh victory of the season seems certain to take the leaders further ahead at the top of the table with four games to play, while Gloucestershire suffered their ninth defeat in ten.
Needing four runs to win, Durham sent in Matty Potts and Ollie Robinson to open their second innings; Potts hit the winning boundary off some gentle off spin from Ollie Price from the final ball of the first over to complete the chase.
David Bedingham provided the batting highlight with an innings of 122, his fifth century in the Championship this year and taking him to within 57 runs of 1,000 for the season. Durham had earlier posted 384 in their first innings to establish a 247-run lead, having seen Gloucestershire bowled out for 137 on the opening day where James Bracey's battling 60 offered the main resistance.
Kasey Aldridge took a five-wicket haul in the first innings and struck again with 4-47 in the second to finish with match figures of 9-63. Brydon Carse chipped in with four important wickets and the inclusion of Carse, Ben Stokes and Matty Potts headlined the quality on show in the match.
Miles Hammond made 58 as Gloucestershire reached 250 in their second innings to take a narrow lead on the third evening before bad light prevented Durham from attempting the four runs required until this morning. The quick finish underlined the contrast between Durham's batting and Gloucestershire's continued struggles across the contest.
Durham travel to Northampton in the next round of matches, while Gloucestershire return to Bristol to play Derbyshire, who they defeated by 10 wickets back in April, in the next round starting on Wednesday.
