Gloucestershire wither under Edgbaston floodlights

Dominic Ostler battered Gloucestershire to their second National League defeat of the season with his maiden century in the competition under the Egbaston floodlights.

Ostler's 134 not out equalled Nick Knight's Warwickshire-best individual score in the league and laid the foundations for a comfortable 39-run win. There were 12 fours and three sixes in Ostler's 114-ball innings, but his last 84 runs came from just 44 balls as Gloucestershire failed to contain him.

Gloucestershire felt the absence of Ian Harvey, their influential Australian all-rounder, as they lacked his improvisational skills and their bowling and fielding became unusually ragged under the mounting pressure. Warwickshire plundered 118 runs from their last ten overs with Ostler and Trevor Penney scoring 113 of them in a rapid fifth wicket stand.

Penney unselfishly gave Ostler the strike and he responded by milking the short Pershore Road boundary. But Penney also struck five fours in his unbeaten 30 and helped Ostler take 23 off James Averis's expensive final over.

Gloucestershire always faced an uphill struggle to overhaul such a daunting target under temporary floodlights and despite a flurry of boundaries from Matt Windows, Reggie Williams and Martyn Ball they subsided quietly to 209 all out.