Matt Taylor and Daniel Worrall leave soft-centred Middlesex all out of excuses

Drastic collapse hands Gloucestershire crucial victory after Eskinazi, Mitchell resistance

Gloucestershire 248 (Hammond 75, Bamber 3-39, Cullen 3-57) and 272 (Bracey 88, Mitchell 4-42) beat Middlesex 101 (M Taylor 4-19) and 255 (Eskinazi 102, Mitchell 73; M Taylor 5-40, Worrall 5-54) by 164 runs

Stuart Law has never had much truck with excuses. He didn’t when he was a player, he didn’t when he was Lancashire skipper and you can bet your best boots he won’t now that he is a coach. For a dismissed batsman to say that the ball was swinging is on a par with the suggestion that the grass was on the green side. What the hell else did they expect? Excuses, in the Middlesex coach’s world, are used instead of arguments by soft cricketers and Law doesn’t have much time for them either.

A relatively peaceful five overs followed before Ethan Bamber jabbed a shortish ball from Worrall to short leg where Tom Lace clutched an outstanding catch to his gut. Once again Gloucestershire’s fielders raced around like men demented. Two overs later they were sprinting about the College Ground again but this time in the direction of Jack Taylor, who we had barely noticed on this last day until he sprinted from deep square leg to take the very fine catch off Robbie White that ended the game. Taylor’s brother, Matt, finished with 5 for 40 on his 27th birthday and a career-best match analysis of 9 for 59. Worrall, who stinted himself no less, took 5 for 54. Middlesex lost their last six wickets for 14 runs.

But such a bleak statistic could barely be in deeper contrast to the temper of a morning session in which, for an hour or more, Eskinazi was as patient as a heron on a river bank. Three runs took him to only the second half-century of a season in which he was dropped after two games and only recalled for the match against Leicestershire in late May. It is really no secret that being omitted from the county side came as a horrid shock but perhaps it caused him to reconsider his approach to batting and to see every innings as precious. That, at least, was the impression he gave on Wednesday afternoon and again on Thursday as his innings entered its sixth hour. The two fours he struck before the new ball was taken, both of them cover-drives, were Status Quo riffs in the middle of a symphony.

But this evening at Cheltenham there are songs of victory and cans of lager and this precious old field is filled with Gloucestershire cricketers who cannot stop smiling. This victory leaves them five points behind the Group Two leaders, Somerset, but six points ahead of third-placed Hampshire, whom they play at Cheltenham next week. Once again the hopes and fears of the Cotswolds will meet at the College Ground. It should be a wondrous occasion.