McDonald hails 'complete' final day performance

* Audio interviews with Andrew McDonald, Mark Cosgrove and Paul Horton with BBC Radio Leicester’s Richard Rae are available by clicking on their names.

REACTION | Leicestershire CCC Elite Performance Director Andrew McDonald praised the clinicality of his charges on what proved to be the final day of the Specsavers County Championship game at Cheltenham.

Michael Klinger and Jack Taylor, who both made unbeaten centuries in a recent win at Worcestershire, initially extended their partnership to 55 before Ben Raine and Clint McKay changed the complexion.

The duo took five wickets for just 12 runs to give County the edge in the first session and although a last wicket partnership developed, the chase was within range – and Paul Horton and Mark Cosgrove batted beautifully.

McDonald said: “At the start of the day it probably didn’t quite happen as quickly as we expected but it opened up. Ben Raine was back to his best and Clint McKay was outstanding again, he wasn’t rewarded until late in that spell, but when he was, the game moved forward quickly.

“To bowl like that (Raine & McKay) when the game was on the line, at a key moment this morning, was a great effort. To hold them to that total gave our batsmen a chance to track it down. It was a complete day’s performance from our point of view.

“It was a fantastic win, it was a big game and both teams came to play. It was tight throughout the game and the trend of the game was wickets, it was always tough for batters.

“The captain and vice-captain came together with a partnership. It was outstanding and showed great leadership. They’re quality players and there are some good skill sets in this team now.

“It’s great for the group to be involved in big games. Last year we wouldn’t have been talking about the potential of getting into the top four, not far off the lead, and having a big swing game against Gloucestershire. We didn’t have those conversations last year, so full credit to the boys, we’re moving forward.

Cosgrove praised Horton after a day in which the duo shared a match-winning partnership of 108 for the third wicket.

"I don’t think we played our best cricket over the first couple of days of the game, but we bowled fantastically well today and took our catches,” said Cosgrove.

"We lost a couple of early wickets but Horts (Paul Horton) and myself said that if we bat for the rest of the day we would win. I thought he batted really well, probably the best he has batted for this club. It was a top innings.

"Who knows where we will end up at the end of the season, but we are on a roll and have got to continue playing good cricket."

Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson credited Leicestershire’s seamers after the game as they put his side’s batsmen under pressure throughout the contest.

He said: "We were behind on first innings and that was the difference. We talked about the importance of not being in that position, but once we were it was always going to be difficult to control the game.

"I think the bottom line is that we didn’t bat well enough and we paid the price for that.

"Leicestershire are a good side and have a very good bowling attack, but we didn’t apply ourselves well enough.

"They put us under pressure today and when we lost two wickets in one over, we were always going to struggle."