Durham easily hold out for draw

Gloucestershire's attempts to engineer a second consecutive CricInfo Championship victory were foiled by rain on the final day of the match against Durham at Gloucester.

When play finally began at 3.30 the visitors were set a higly improbable 290 to win off a minimum of 40 overs.

Although they set attacking fields and pressed hard, Gloucestershire were unable to induce the clatter of early wickets required to force a result and eventually settled for the draw after a largely meaningless afternoon's cricket closed with Durham on 116-2 from 32 overs.

Heavy showers induced Mark Alleyne to declare Gloucestershire's innings at 156-4 and look to his bowlers to extert instant pressure.

James Averis made the breakthrough, Michael Gough gloving a legside bouncer to Jack Russell in the ninth over, and Durham skipper Jon Lewis departed soon afterwards, edging a Michael Cawdron outswinger to first slip with the total on 48.

But Gloucestershire expectations were crushed by Australian batsman Martin Love who harvested a six and eight fours in a 77-ball half-century.

Alleyne employed six bowlers in all, but Martin Speight played his part in a third-wicket stand worth 68 when proceedings were brought to a close with nine overs unused.