Gloucestershire comfortably beat local rivals Somerset by eight wickets in the County Championship to claim their first win at Taunton since 1993.
The final day would usually have hundreds of people in attendance, but that wasn’t the case in a match that was played behind closed doors due to the current coronavirus restrictions.
The visitors began the day on 28 for one, needing 125 for victory, with nine wickets in hand, however they managed to reach their target of 153 off of 41.1 overs around lunchtime.
The home side were hoping for a couple of breakthroughs in the opening overs in an effort to create a nervous atmosphere in the away dressing room. But the pitch only proved to show the poor attempt of Somerset’s second innings scored of 149.
James Bracey shone as he added an unbeaten 83 to his first-innings century to guide his side to victory on the final morning of the County Championship clash at the Cooper Associates ground.
The 23-year-old impressed throughout hitting 13 fours during his 122-ball stay at the crease and shared a match-clinching second-wicket stand of 79 with Gloucestershire debutant Kraigg Braithwaite.
The West Indies captain struck four boundaries in his 62-ball innings before aiming for a fifth off a wide ball from Marchant de Lange and getting an inside edge onto his middle stump.
Teams:
Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, T. Banton, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M de Lange, M.J. Leach.
Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, G.L. van Buuren, R.F. Higgins, G.T. Hankins, G.F.B. Scott, D.A. Payne, M.D. Taylor, D.C. Goodman
By then, Gloucestershire only required 64 runs. But de Lange, boosted by the wicket, summoned up pace and bounce to test new batsman Lace.
Bracey kept the momentum of the innings going after sweeping four off Jack Leach, who found little assistance in the surface for his left-arm spin, and went to his fifty off 84 balls, with eight boundaries.
Ryan Higgins returned figures of 4-29, while Matt Taylor and Dominic Goodman took two wickets apiece to limit Somerset in the group two match up, which was a first defeat in red-ball cricket at their home ground since 2017.
