Sanderson delighted as 'fantastic day' puts Northants on brink of big win

Ben Sanderson says Northants could not have asked for more from the second day of their Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash with Gloucestershire.
Ben Sanderson claimed five wickets in the Gloucestershire first innings (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)Ben Sanderson claimed five wickets in the Gloucestershire first innings (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
Ben Sanderson claimed five wickets in the Gloucestershire first innings (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The County, who have yet to win in the Championship this season, produced a stunning bowling performance as they dismissed their opponents for just 62 and then enforced the follow-on.

Gloucestershire were then 72 for five and 172 for eight in their second innings before they finally produced some sort of response to conclude the day on 245 for eight.

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That leaves the away side 25 runs ahead of Northants, who had made 282 all out in their first innings, going into the third day.

David Ripley's men had Sanderson and Hutton to thank for putting them on the brink of victory.

Sanderson claimed five for 16 from his 14 overs in the first innings, with Steven Crook taking three for 11.

And Hutton then went to work in the Gloucestershire second innings, impressing with figures of six for 57 from his 17 overs, adding to his single wicket in the first innings.

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And Sanderson said: “It’s a fantastic day, I don’t think we could have asked for anything more - all of the bowlers have chipped in.

“When it’s your day, it’s your day, and the batsmen nicked everything this morning.

“We’ve been asking for some grass on the pitch to help the bowlers and we showed what we can do when there is some help there and I think that suits us better as a team."

Gloucestershire will need something extremely special to avoid defeat on the third day.

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And all-rounder Ryan Higgins, who made 10 in the first innings and 63 in the second, said: “It was obviously a tough start to the day.

"There are some divots on the pitch and that was tough to combat to begin with but the boys found a way second time around.

“Gareth (Roderick) and I came together and said we’ll be positive and make it is as difficult as possible for them and we showed some good fight at the end.

“Then it was great work from the guys lower down to see us through with a couple of guys always wanting to improve their batting."