North guides Gloucestershire

Marcus North fell two runs short of his first four-day century of the summer

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An innings of quality from Marcus North was the highlight of Gloucestershire's innings on the opening day of their LV County Championship Division Two clash against Essex.

The 28-year-old Australian scored 98 of his side's 275 total, his innings spanning 125 deliveries and containing 16 fours.

Many of those boundaries arrived with some fine drives but the manner of his dismissal with a first championship century of the summer in his grasp was disappointing.

He swept a simple catch off Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria to David Masters at short fine leg.
North's efforts, and later those of Mark Hardinges, enabled the visitors to overcome the loss of openers William Porterfield and Kadeer Ali in successive overs with only 27 on the board.

When Hamish Marshall fell to a brilliant diving catch by wicketkeeper James Foster as soon as 50 was reached Gloucestershire were in some trouble.

But North and Alex Gidman launched a recovery with a partnership of 79 before the latter was bowled by Graham Napier for 31.

Hardinges, who is being released at the end of the summer, combined watchful defence with controlled aggression to reach 40, hitting six fours and a six, before running out of partners.

Napier quickly brought the Gloucestershire innings to an end to end with figures of 4-50, while Masters, Kaneria and off-spinner James Middlebrook picked up two wickets each.

Essex responded with 63 without loss from 26 overs before the close to put themselves in the ascendancy.

Varun Chopra reached the close within seven runs of his half-century, while Jason Gallian will resume the second day on 23.

So far they have resisted the attempts of four bowlers to remove them but have not always found it easy.

Both Chopra and Gallian were a little fortunate to see edged strokes against Jonathan Lewis and Steve Kirby fall just short of grasping fingers as they extracted quite a bit of bounce in the early overs.