Bancroft says big first innings partnership was the difference as Northants down Gloucestershire

The west country side showed real commitment as they got within 13 balls of securing a draw at the cinch County Ground, but Calvin Harrison's excellent 92 not out eventually saw Northants over the line at 191 for three.

It was a thrilling end to an excellent match, with Gloucestershire indebted to James Bracey's brilliant 148 not out in the second innings after they were asked to follow on.

It was an innings that very nearly earned his side a share of the spoils and although proud of his team's efforts, Bancroft felt the damage was done on day one as Northants recovered a precarious from 41 for three to post 465 all out.

That was largely down to Zaib's 148 and McSweeney's 117, and Bancroft said: "They had a really, really key partnership in their first innings, that was massive.

"You take that away, and I think we took 200 for nine, which is not a bad effort.

"But that partnership was so big that it was hard for us to claw back, unless we applied ourselves a little bit better with the bat, which we weren't able to do.

"So, we should be good enough to break that deficit and get to the follow-on point.

"And the reality is, we put ourselves in a difficult situation, and it was always going to be tough work from there."

On his team's effort to get so close to a draw on the final day having been asked to bat again, the Australian admitted: “We showed a bit of fight, which was nice.

"We only had three wickets in hand, but the partnerships there that James Bracey had with our lower order, I thought were fantastic.

“We were really close, I guess, to getting to a safe kind of place in the game, so I’m really pleased with that, but it was obviously a disappointing result in the end."

The loss leaves Gloucester rooted to the bottom of the Division Two table, 40 points adrift, having lost six out of seven matches.

Quotes courtesy of Jeremy Blackmore