Rhodes seals Gloucestershire win

County Championship D2, Derby, day three: Gloucestershire 277 & 171-5 beat Derbyshire 89 & 356 by five wickets
Gloucestershire 19 pts, Derbyshire 3

Match scorecard

Gloucestershire completed the victory which had been on the cards since the opening day as Jonty Rhodes saw them home with an unbeaten half century.

Having been skittled in 36 overs in their first innings, bottom club Derbyshire at least made the visitors work hard with opener Michael Di Venuto scoring 148.

He added 32 to his overnight score before giving a return catch to spinner Michael Ball, but Luke Sutton showed similar resolve as he stood firm for five and a half hours.

Dominic Cork contributed 39 before also falling victim to Ball, who finished with 4-65 as Sutton was left high and dry on 81 not out.

A target of 169 was not plain sailing for Gloucestershire, however, as Kevin Dean nipped out both openers cheaply.

Graeme Welch also claimed two victims and there was a glimmer of hope for Derbyshire with the visitors on 52-4, but Alex Gidman made 41 off 46 balls and Rhodes completed the formalities with an unbeaten 62.

---

Derbyshire: A I Gait, M J Di Venuto, C W G Bassano, M Kaif, L D Sutton (Wkt), D R Hewson, D G Cork (Capt), G Welch, N R C Dumelow, Mohammad Ali, K J Dean.

Gloucestershire: W P C Weston, C M Spearman (Capt), M G N Windows, C G Taylor, J N Rhodes, I J Harvey, A P R Gidman, M C J Ball, S P Pope (Wkt), J Lewis, A M Smith.