Gloucestershire end Yorkshire's unbeaten run

Gloucestershire 294 for 6 beat Yorkshire 229 by 65 runs
Scorecard

Gloucestershire Gladiators inflicted a first Clydesdale Bank 40 defeat of the season on Yorkshire Carnegie with a 65-run victory in the opening game of the Cheltenham Festival.

Gloucestershire joined Yorkshire on 10 points at the top of Group B after the visitors were bowled out for 229 in reply to 294 for 6 by the hosts. Chris Taylor, with an unbeaten 83 off 63 balls, and skipper Alex Gidman, with 64 from 57 deliveries, led Gloucestershire to an imposing total.

Yorkshire slumped to 73 for 5 before Adam Lyth (84) and Tim Bresnan (58) made a fight of the run chase with a sixth-wicket stand of 104 in 17 overs.

But the game was as good as over when Bresnan, who missed out on selection for today's first Test at Trent Bridge, holed out to deep midwicket to give former Yorkshire fast bowler Steve Kirby his second wicket.

Kirby also had Lyth taken at mid-off as he finished with three for 41 in eight overs. After being put in by Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, Gloucestershire openers Will Porterfield and James Franklin took 17 off the opening over from West Indies paceman Tino Best.

Porterfield departed in the third over, caught at second slip off Bresnan, but Franklin and Gidman maintained a good tempo to the innings by bringing up 50 in the eighth over and 100 in the 15th.

The pair had extended their partnership to 105 in 17 overs when Franklin gave a return catch to Steven Patterson. Gidman's entertaining innings came to an end in the next over when he carved a delivery from Best to Richard Pyrah at backward point. His 57-ball innings had contained seven fours and two straight sixes.

There was no respite for Yorkshire, though, as Hamish Marshall and Taylor took advantage of the short boundaries square of the wicket at the College Ground to maintain a brisk scoring rate.

A partnership of 98 in 14 overs came to an end when Marshall, whose 42 came off 38 balls, pulled Bresnan to backward square leg, where Best took the catch.

Chris Dent was dismissed soon after when he sliced a drive off Patterson to Wainwright at short third man. But that brought Steve Snell to the middle and he and Taylor plundered 50 off the last four overs.

Snell cracked three fours and a six over long-off before he was run out at the bowler's end, attempting a third run off Adil Rashid. Taylor smashed the next delivery over the midwicket boundary boards for six and the final over of the innings from Rashid ended up costing 19 runs.

Taylor's unbeaten 83 was his best one-day score of the season and there were four fours and three sixes in his innings. Yorkshire's chase got off to a disastrous start with the loss of four wickets in the opening six overs for 39 runs.

Jacques Rudolph was first to go when Jon Lewis had him taken at second slip by Richard Dawson. Anthony Ireland accounted for Gale, who played on, and Jonathan Bairstow, caught behind, off successive deliveries and then Lewis clipped Rashid's off stump.

Anthony McGrath helped Lyth put on 34 for the fifth wicket before Kirby had him caught behind off a defensive edge. Lyth and Bresnan, who had dashed down from Nottingham after being told England did not need him, rallied the innings with a half-century apiece.

Bresnan hit sixes over long-on and midwicket on his way to a 57-ball fifty, but eventually fell to a fine catch on the run by Dawson in the deep off Kirby. Lyth's valiant knock ended two overs later when he skied a drive off Kirby to Marshall at mid-off, and the rest of the innings quickly folded.

The last three wickets were taken by Dawson, who had Wainwright leg before, Pyrah caught at extra cover by Gidman and Patterson caught behind.