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England captain opts to avoid controversy on opening night of Australia tour

Tristan Lavalette09-Oct-2022England captain Jos Buttler said he might have considered appealing against Matthew Wade obstructing the field in a higher-stakes contest in the aftermath of his side’s thrilling eight-run victory over Australia in Perth.The series opener, in what is effectively a warm-up ahead of the T20 World Cup, was delicately poised with Australia at 170 for 5 and needing 39 off 23 balls when Wade top-edged a fierce short delivery from speedster Mark Wood into his helmet that then ballooned into the air.Wood ran towards the batter’s end in a desperate effort to take the return catch but was blocked by a seemingly shaken Wade, who then impeded the quick by sticking his arm out as he tried to get back into his ground.Related

• Aaron Finch 'not a big fan' of non-striker run-outs after apparent warning from Mitchell Starc to Jos Buttler

• Tougher test awaits England's powerful batting as Australia's big guns return

• Perth's long wait is over after international cricket's Covid lockout

• Wade: England World Cup thrashing was Australia's 'lightbulb' moment

• Buttler and Hales lay down opening mark before Wood stars in high-scorer

Buttler was asked by the on-field umpires whether he wanted to appeal, but declined as Wade survived and needed his helmet replaced. There was widespread confusion for players and the 25,000 Optus Stadium crowd, but the incident was somewhat dampened by Buttler’s non-appeal in England’s first hit out on Australian soil as the T20 World Cup looms.”Maybe,” said Buttler in his post match press conference when asked if he would have appealed for obstructing the field if it was a T20 World Cup match. “They asked if I wanted to appeal and I said ‘no’. I’ve only just got to Australia so I thought just carry on with the game.”Buttler said he “didn’t really see what happened” because he was watching the ball closely.”It was hard because I didn’t know what I was appealing for,” he said. “I could have asked some of the other boys to see if they had a better view but thought I would get on with the game.”Maybe I should have asked a few of the lads.”Wade, last year’s T20 World Cup hero for his ability at finishing an innings, threatened to get Australia over the line after surviving the incident but holed out in the final over as the home side fell short in the first men’s international match in Perth in almost three years. It was Wade’s first dismissal in a chase since August 2021 – also the last time Australia lost when batting second in T20Is.”When you’ve been hit in the head and you’re running around and don’t know where the ball is… it’s chaos,” Australia allrounder Marcus Stoinis told reporters.Buttler paid tribute to Wood, who claimed the key wicket of David Warner for 73 just three balls after the Wade controversy and finished with 3 for 34. “To come back, take those wickets, bowl fast and intimidate the guys which he can do with that pace… he’s got great character too,” Buttler said.

Scotland overcome mini-collapse as Munsey-Budge stand sees them home

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2021A century stand between George Munsey and Dylan Budge saw off early jitters in a low scoring chase for Scotland, helping them ease to a six-wicket win over Netherlands.Munsey top scored with an unbeaten 79, the No. 6 batter steadying the ship after Netherlands reduced Kyle Coetzer’s side to 66 for 4. At that point, they still needed 106 more to wrap up the win in the second ODI in Rotterdam. The Dutch bowlers failed to make any further inroads, though, with the visitors cruising to the target with nearly eight overs to spare.Experienced pace bowler Alisdair Evans set up the chase after Netherlands opted to bat. Wickets off successive deliveries got rid of opener Max O’ Dowd and Ben Cooper, before he returned to run through a tail that offered little resistance.Evans would end with a career-best 5 for 43, with Dutch wicketkeeper Scott Edwards the only batsman to offer notable resistance with a half-century. It helped his side limp on to 171, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the home team from being bowled out with eight balls to go.The chase would begin steadily enough for Scotland, with Coetzer and Mathew Cross ensuring no wickets fell in the first Powerplay. But with the score on 34, they’d be rocked as Netherlands picked up three wickets without a further run being added to the score.The openers and Calum MacLeod were all back in the pavilion, with Vivan Kingma and Paul van Meekeren responsible for the breakthroughs. Richie Berrington had his defences breached shortly after by Philippe Boissevain, bringing Munsey and Budge together out in the middle.There was no further drama as far as Scotland were concerned, the pair steadily knocking off the runs. With the target as low as 172, the run rate was never likely to be a problem, and with Netherlands failing to break the partnership, the chase ended up becoming as stroll. It ensured the series would be drawn 1-1, after Netherlands had won a rain-affected opening game by 14 runs.

Some key players need to restore confidence before facing India after a bruising tour

Andrew McGlashan07-Jan-2020New Zealand are “hurting a lot” after being whitewashed in Australia, with coach Gary Stead admitting confidence among some key players will need to be resorted ahead of the next Test series against India in February.Defeats by 296 runs, 247 runs and 279 runs – in a series where they only passed 200 twice – condemned New Zealand to their worst ever result in Australia having arrived as the No. 2 team in the world. While they were hampered by injuries to key players, and a flu bug that went through the camp during the Sydney Test, they were so far short of expectations as to raise questions over their planning and mindset.This was the middle series of three key contests for New Zealand, having played England at home and then having India at the end of their season. Stead had said before this series that the team should be judged at the end of that run, which leaves the India matches as key for restoring some reputations, although it will be hard to shake off the magnitude of this defeat.ALSO READ: Williamson’s workload, Santner’s spot – five questions for New Zealand“Everyone in the team is hurting and hurting a lot,” Stead said. “We wanted to perform better than this but Australia didn’t allow us to. There’s no doubt the team has taken a confidence knock as everyone does when this happens. We have to go back and regroup, look in the mirror and say how can we keep getting better. India are an equally strong team and they will bring a big challenge for us. We need to learn from what’s happened here but also trust the way we’ve played in New Zealand in the past will hopefully stand us in good stead when we play India.”There are unlikely to be significant changes for the Tests against India partly because there is not a vast pool to be selected from, but the emergence of Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips on this tour has at least given some options. Blundell will likely retain his place opening in the short-term while Phillips will put pressure on the incumbents to produce runs.BJ Watling chops one onto his stumps•Getty Images

“The way Australia applied pressure for long periods, and equally when they batted how they absorbed it is the key thing,” Stead said. “They just did it better than us for long periods of time. The decision making around our batting needs to be stronger.”It would be silly to have knee-jerk reactions about coming to Australia, which is one of the two toughest places in the world to tour. It’s not like we have thousands of cricketers in a population base that allows us to make wholesale changes. There’s no doubt we’ll think about it, review what’s happened and find the good and work out where we can keep making improvements.”Trent Boult (broken hand), Lockie Ferguson (calf) and Matt Henry (broken thumb) are on the injury list with Ferguson’s time frame the most uncertain. Before the India Tests there is a five-match T20I series and three ODIs where Stead indicated the selectors may need to look at some other options.”One of the key things will be assessing injuries. This tour hasn’t been kind to us… it has the potential to leave some holes depending on their recovery time. That might mean more opportunity for a different crop of people to be looked at.”We’ve got the T20 World Cup further down the track, I think it’s 22-23 matches away now and we’re still honing the way we want to play and who we see fitting into roles and learning as much as we can before we hit that tournament.”

Cricket Australia could name its new chief executive next week as the race to replace the outgoing James Sutherland heats up

Daniel Brettig20-Sep-2018One of Melbourne Grand Prix chairman John Harnden or the former Cricket New South Wales chairman John Warn may be named as the new chief executive of Cricket Australia as soon as next week after the race to succeed the longtime boss James Sutherland narrowed to the final preferred candidate stage.ESPNcricinfo understands that two other remaining candidates, one of them the current Cricket Australia chief operating officer Kevin Roberts, were informed they had fallen out of the running at the start of the week, with final presentations by Harnden – also a CA Board director – and Warn believed to have been made on Tuesday.Another senior figure who is thought to have featured in leadership discussions is the former Australian women’s team captain and head of game development Belinda Clark, who is highly regarded within CA and may well be in line to replace Harnden or Warn after their tenure, which is not expected to come close to the 17 years clocked up by Sutherland.Roberts, who had appeared a likely successor for Sutherland from the moment he left the CA Board to join the executive management team in late 2015, raised the ire of the Australian Cricketers Association last year for the way he managed pay negotiations with the players’ union, resulting in a standoff where players went unpaid for almost a month and an Australia A tour of South Africa was cancelled. He was ultimately sidelined from talks that were to be concluded by Sutherland and the team performance manager Pat Howard.However, Roberts is thought to have retained the backing of the chairman David Peever to replace Sutherland until late in the process. Succession planning was one of numerous issues raised by the former Board director Bob Every when he quit CA in protest at Peever being given in-principle approval to continue as chairman for another three years. This decision remains to be ratified by the states at the CA annual general meeting on October 25.When Sutherland replaced Malcolm Speed in 2001, he was only 35 years old and younger than the then Australian team captain Steven Waugh. By contrast Harnden (53, the same age as Sutherland) and Warn (45) are considerably more seasoned. However, CA’s current battle to regain public confidence, bed-down a new $1.18 billion broadcast deal with News Corp and Seven and also make ready for hosting the two separate women’s and men’s world Twenty20 tournaments in 2020 suggests an intensive commission for Sutherland’s successor.Other major issues for CA include efforts to contextualise international cricket via the ICC, with Test and ODI championships due to begin in 2019, and the juggling of the Big Bash League amid an increasingly clogged rota of domestic T20 tournaments, many of which offer considerably greater financial incentives. Equally, the game is in a constant battle for participants and spectators with other Australian sports, as evidenced by the game’s slip to seventh, below basketball, for participation numbers according to Sport Australia’s annual figures.Harnden, who is Melbourne-based, has been considered the most likely candidate for some time, given the breadth of his experience as a former chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix, the South Australian Cricket Association, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup before replacing Ron Walker as the Melbourne Grand Prix chairman. In particular his record of running major events would be an advantage ahead of 2020, while his work with a variety of state and federal governments provides an indicator of the political skills required at ICC level.Nevertheless, Harnden has also sat on the CA Board since 2016, in that time being a part of flawed decision-making around the MoU. The appointment of an internal candidate, at a time when CA is itself subject to a broad cultural review by the Ethics Centre following the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, would also be a matter for conjecture.Warn, based in Sydney, stepped down from his roles as NSW chairman and also a senior executive at Westfield earlier this year to spend more time with his family, and would need to move south to take up the role heading CA’s operations at their Jolimont headquarters. Known as a highly combative club cricketer for Manly-Warringah in Sydney grade competition, Warn’s corporate career in retail has dovetailed with directorships at Cricket NSW and also the NSW Waratahs rugby union team.He and the NSW chief executive Andrew Jones were widely credited with improving the structure and performance of Australian cricket’s largest state association. However, Warn also presided over a recent downturn in the results of the men’s state team and the failure of its younger generation to develop after the fashion of the likes of Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, which saw the coach Trent Johnston replaced by Phil Jaques over the off-season.Others mentioned as potential candidates included the WACA chief executive Christina Matthews, Jones, NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop. At the time that Sutherland announced his impending resignation in June, Peever stated that candidates with a significant knowledge of or background in cricket would likely be favoured.”This is an incredibly complex job, it has many dimensions,” Peever said. “What we must do is find the best person for the role. While I don’t want to put any constraints around it, it is a Cricket Australia role, so we’re probably going to have a little bit of bias towards an Australian, and it is a role in cricket, so we’ll probably have a bias towards someone in cricket.”

Matt Critchley delivered another impressive application for all-rounder status when he marked his first county championship match of the season with a century in the division two match against Durham at Chesterfield

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2017
ScorecardMatt Critchley struck his second first-class hundred•Getty Images

Matt Critchley delivered another impressive application for all-rounder status when he marked his first county championship match of the season with a century in the division two match against Durham at Chesterfield.The 20-year-old, who became Derbyshire’s youngest centurion when he scored an unbeaten 137 against Northants at Derby two years ago, made 102 from 148 balls out of 332 for 9.Wayne Madsen made 54, his highest score against Durham, and skipper Billy Godleman was not out 79 while 18-year-old seamer Matthew Potts took three wickets in his third first-class appearance.Durham’s day might have been different if they had bowled more consistently and had caught Madsen on one when he edged Chris Rushworth to third slip in the ninth over.Rushworth had already trapped Luis Reece lbw with one that kept low and Madsen’s wicket would have given them a chance of exposing a batting order weakened by the absence of Shiv Thakor and Gary Wilson with minor injuries.

Critchley puts spin on it

Matt Critchley, who hopes to follow his century with some successful legspin, said: “There’s enough in the pitch and we saw a few balls at the end that spun so if you bowl consistently in the right place there’s enough to take 20 wickets in the game.
“With it being a club ground it tends to deteriorate and spin a bit more and with Imran Tahir), Hamidullah Qadri and myself we should be well equipped to take 20 wickets. We saw a few balls misbehave at the end so if we can get up to 350 that would be good.”

Madsen, who needed lengthy treatment after he was struck on the left elbow by Paul Coughlin, freshly named as Durham’s NatWest Blast captain. Madsen batted for another 34 overs to establish a platform which Critchley and Godleman exploited with a fifth wicket stand of 99.Critchley’s timing and placement was impressive although Durham were guilty of giving him too much width as 18 fours in his hundred suggest. A frustrating day for the visitors was compounded when the umpires reprieved Godleman on 10 after Graham Clark claimed a low catch at gully off Rushworth.Godleman had dropped down to six in the order after feeling unwell and was in danger of being stranded short of his half century when four wickets fell for only 25 runs after tea following Critchley’s exit when he played across a ball from Potts.But the former Middlesex seamer Gurjit Sandhu emerged from an uncertain start to play soundly on his Derbyshire debut to help Godleman steer his side to a third batting point and easily passed his previous highest first-class score of eight in an unbroken last wicket stand of 66 to make it the hosts day.Paul Coughlin will lead Durham in the NatWest Blast•Getty Images

James Anderson has leapfrogged his England new-ball partner Stuart Broad to become the No. 1 Test bowler in the ICC rankings

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2016James Anderson has leapfrogged his England new-ball partner Stuart Broad to become the No. 1 Test bowler in the ICC rankings. This is the first time Anderson has occupied the top of the table in his Test career, which began in 2003.Anderson has picked up 18 wickets in the first two Tests of the ongoing home series against Sri Lanka, collecting 79 points in that period and gaining four spots in the rankings. His figures of 3 for 36 and 5 for 58 in the second Test in Chester-le-Street gave him 30 points, and moved him above Broad and India offspinner R Ashwin.”I’m delighted to have contributed as I have throughout the series and hopefully I can take some more wickets in the next game,” Anderson said. “You’ve got to make the most of it when you are in rhythm, when you’re not it can be a struggle.”Anderson’s match haul of eight wickets helped him become the sixth bowler to pass 450 wickets in Tests. Broad, who took five wickets in the second Test, dropped three points and slipped behind Ashwin to third place.Moeen Ali, who scored a career-best unbeaten 155 in England’s first innings, achieved his highest batting ranking, jumping 12 places to No. 35. He has also moved to sixth on the allrounders’ list, and sits a point behind his team-mate Ben Stokes.

Royal Challengers Bangalore are still looking for their first home win of the season against a confident Kolkata Knight Riders side, who toppled Chennai Super Kings in their last outing

The Preview by Nagraj Gollapudi01-May-2015

Match facts

Saturday, May 2, 2015
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)1:54

O’Brien: Toss in Bangalore crucial

Big picture

A power-hitting top order in one corner, and an aggressive fast-bowling pack at the other. It is no Floyd Mayweather Jr v Manny Pacquiao boxing fight, billed as the ‘Fight of the Century’, but Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Kolkata Knight Riders has the making of an action-packed afternoon on Saturday if it lives up to expectations.Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the backbone of their team’s batting, have all been among the runs and have each played a match-winning innings in Royal Challengers’ resurgence that has seen them string together dominant performances in their last three matches, after three successive home defeats. Another important contributing factor has been the cutting edge to the attack provided by World Cup hero Mitchell Starc, who has effortlessly slipped into the role of the leader of the group.These factors make Royal Challengers a slight favourite against defending champions Knight Riders, who endured a painful defeat at home the last time these two teams met. Royal Challengers were staring at defeat at one stage in that match, after their top and middle order had failed, but ultimately finished winners due to Gayle’s patience and calculated assault in the second half of the chase.India fast bowler Umesh Yadav, who did not play that match, will be the key on Saturday along with South African quick Morne Morkel who sat out Knight Riders’ last two matches. The Bangalore pitch has been one of the most responsive wickets for fast bowlers but the Knight Riders would do well to combine aggression with good bowling strategy to stop the reinvigorated Royal Challengers.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore WWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Kolkata Knight Riders WLLWW

Watch out for

Gautam Gambhir has hit three fifties this season and remains the lynchpin for Knight Riders. But in the last three matches, he has not had an impact with the bat. But if Gambhir can last beyond the Powerplay, he becomes a dangerous player, especially against the slow bowlers with his ability to pierce gaps and use his feet.Mandeep Singh, the Punjab batsman, has played just one innings of significance this season – the 27 against Rajasthan Royals. But it was a very important innings considering Mandeep’s 74-run partnership for the third wicket with de Villiers set up the platform through which the lower order encashed. But Mandeep has been a disappointment otherwise, scoring just six runs in the two other innings he has played. On Friday afternoon, he had an additional solo session after the team left, getting throwdowns from bowling coach Allan Donald. It will be a test of his character next time he walks in to bat.

Stats and trivia

• Gambhir has made five 50-plus scores against Royal Challengers in the IPL, more than any other player.
• Chinnaswamy stadium is the only venue where fast bowlers have taken two four-wicket hauls this IPL. The seamers have taken taken 29 wickets here, second-most for any venue, just one behind the Wankhede Stadium and Chepauk.

R Ashwin has been named in the top bracket of the BCCI’s central contracts for the first time, while Harbhajan Singh has been demoted

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Oct-2012Offspinner Harbhajan Singh and seamer Ishant Sharma have been demoted from Grade A to B in the BCCI’s list of annually contracted players, while offspinner R Ashwin, who has established himself as the leading spinner for India across all three formats, has been promoted from Grade B to A.This means that the duo of Harbhajan and Ishant will draw a fixed income of Rs 50 lakh (approx $93,000) each from October 2012 to September 2013, instead of the Rs 1 crore (approx $186,000) that players with the top grade of contracts will get. Both bowlers seem to have been penalised for their lacklustre performance in the first half of the contract cycle.With the BCCI’s central contracts committee – consisting of president N Srinivasan, secretary Sanjay Jagdale and Sandeep Patil, the chairman of the all-India selection panel – having shrunk Grade A from 12 players to nine, Ashwin has been the biggest beneficiary, replacing Harbhajan as the only spinner in the top grade. There have been no replacements for Ishant, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the top category, with the latter duo having retired from international cricket during the course of the year.The committee has also promoted Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from Grade C, which fetches Rs 25 lakh (around $46,500) annually, to B. Both Rahane and Pujara have been billed as leading contenders to fill spots over the long-term in the Test line-up. Umesh Yadav, who has impressed with the ball, and allrounder Irfan Pathan, who is back in national contention after a stint on the sidelines, have been elevated from Grade C to B.Besides Harbhajan and Ishant, others who have been demoted include Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom have been moved from Grade B to C.Bowlers S Sreesanth and Jaydev Unadkat are omitted from last year’s list of 37 players (the same number as this year). Seamer L Balaji and allrounder Yusuf Pathan return to the list, with Grade C contracts, while fast bowler Ashok Dinda is on the list for the first time.Grade A: Rs 1 crore each (approx $186,000)
Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, R AshwinGrade B: Rs 50 lakh each (approx $93,000)
Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Umesh YadavGrade C: Rs 25 lakh each (around $46,500)
Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

Wahab Riaz, the Pakistan fast bowler, believes he will become a complete bowler once he has perfected his inswinger

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2011Pakistan seamer Wahab Riaz has credited the series he played against Australia A two years back as being crucial in his development and believes he will become a complete bowler once he has perfected his inswinger.”The great thing about that tour was that we were playing against a talented side,” Riaz told . “As a result, we also had to ensure that we were performing at a higher level and giving it our best. The thing is, when you are competing against a good side, you have to be more disciplined and you also learn to experiment a little bit.”Personally, after playing against a strong opposition like Australia A in their conditions, I started to gain more confidence. I remember that in the very first innings I was able to grab five wickets against them. Consequently, the confidence I gained from that achievement, I never let go of it and have never looked back.”Riaz broke into the Test side in the 2010 tour of England that was eventually tainted by the spot-fixing scandal, but he made an impact right away, taking a five-for at The Oval on debut. His stock ball is the one that is angled away from the right-hander, but he is now developing the one that moves the other way. “I have been working very hard to develop the inswinging delivery and it is coming along. While it will take some time to perfect, I know that once it is perfected I will become a better all round bowler.”Riaz is confident he can develop the inswinger without ruining his natural ability to shape the ball away. “I have talked to Wasim Akram too and he has helped me a lot. I obviously can’t develop deliveries and skills in just one month because for so many years, I have been bowling to my strength and sticking to basics. I know that people want to see the inswinger more often and God willing, this will happen. They [the fans] will have to wait just a little while longer.”Riaz was rested for Pakistan’s ongoing tour of Zimbabwe and that gave him a chance to play country cricket for Kent, which he termed “a really good experience”.”After playing for Kent, with respect to the English conditions, you learn that one has to bowl differently every day, and you have to adjust relative to the wicket and match situation,” he said.Riaz currently averages 9.50 with the bat from seven Tests, but is confident that he can make a more substantial contribution. “At this point, I still need to focus a little bit more when batting and improve my concentration,” he said. “I have been working hard to improve. Also, concerning my batting, the coaches at Kent have helped me a lot so when I play for Pakistan next time around, I will be a different batsman.”Riaz is capable of hitting 90 mph on a regular basis, which he puts down to working hard on his strength and fitness levels. “I have built up my strength and have also developed myself in this regards,” he said. “While previously I was fast, now, in English County cricket this season, I have touched 93-94 mph quite regularly [in T20 games]. I always take care of my fitness and give it my full attention and that I believe is the main reason for the extra pace nowadays.”In an era when many bowlers have chosen to give up one or the other format, Riaz is confident he can manage to keep playing all three versions of the game. “It depends on your fitness level and your determination – what you want to do. Twenty20 and one-day cricket is basically entertainment cricket, for players who want to play less so they can play for a long time. But in my view, Test cricket is the real deal. I’m working hard on my fitness, and god-willing I will try my best to represent Pakistan in all formats for a long time.”

Teenager Nathan Buck took a starring role to spearhead a Leicestershire fightback on the first day of their final home County Championship game of the season against Gloucestershire at Grace Road

08-Sep-2010
ScorecardLeicestershire dominated the second day of the County Championship game against Gloucestershire at Grace Road to keep alive their slim chances of promotion. After dismissing Gloucestershire for 159 Leicestershire moved into a commanding position by reaching 147 for 1 at stumps to lead by 283 runs.Greg Smith was still there at the close on 70 having shared stands of 69 with Matt Boyce and 78 with Jacques Du Toit to complete an impressive day for the home side. But it was a feeble batting performance from Gloucestershire who still harbour hopes of snatching the second promotion place from Division Two. After the start was delayed for 45 minutes because of early morning mist and damp conditions, Gloucestershire lost their last eight wickets for 105 runs in 45 overs.It would have been an even lower total but for a determined innings of 61 from Hamish Marshall. The next-highest contribution came from opener Jonathan Batty who made 29. Batty began the day on 24 with Gloucestershire 241 behind at their overnight 54 for 2. But having added five runs to his score Batty was caught behind off Matthew Hoggard to bring to an end a third wicket stand of 71 with Marshall.It proved to be the last partnership of any substance as the Gloucestershire innings subsided in the face of some accurate bowling from Leicestershire’s seamers and spinners. Nathan Buck picked up his third wicket of the innings when he squared up Alex Gidman to find the edge and provide wicketkeeper Tom New with another comfortable catch.Marshall however remained defiant reaching 50 off 72 balls with eight fours. But the turning point came when Nadeem Malik dismissed both Marshall and Chris Taylor in the last over before lunch leaving Gloucestershire in disarray at 117 for 6.It was turgid fare after the break as Gloucestershire scored 38 runs in 21 overs before spinners Claude Henderson and Jigar Naik both took two wickets in an over. Henderson caught and bowled James Franklin for 23 and then had Jon Lewis lbw. Naik then brought the innings to an end by having Ed Young taken at slip and Anthony Ireland caught at mid-on.Naik finished with 2 for 9 off 3.5 overs while Henderson conceded only 17 runs in 18 overs for his two wickets. Buck claimed 3 for 47 and two wickets fell in an over on four occasions.Leicestershire tightened the screw even further as Smith and Boyce confidently put together a partnership of 69 that ended when Boyce mistimed a pull off Franklin and was caught at mid wicket. But there were no more alarms as Smith reached 50 off 89 balls and, along with Du Toit, steered Leicestershire safely through to the close and into a match-winning position.