Harvey's heroics can't deny Worcestershire

Worcestershire took only 52 minutes to reach a target of 70 complete a home-and-away double over Gloucestershire in the CricInfo Championship.

Resuming at 14 for no wicket, they reached 73 for 3 to cruise home by seven wickets to maintain an outside chance of joining the promotion race in the Second Division.

The match was wrapped up inside 200 overs after the loss of 20 wickets on the second day when Gloucestershire effectively dropped out of contention in a second innings crash for 87 in barely two hours.

A grassy surface offered consistent seam movement and the bounce became increasingly unreliable, but chief executive Mark Newton said: "The pitch has not been reported by the umpires."

With so few runs to defend, Gloucestershire had little hope of conjuring up a surprise result, but Ian Harvey probably enjoyed ruffling Worcestershire with a couple of wickets in his third over of the morning.

The over-ambitious Anurag Singh planted a drive straight into James Averis' hands at mid-off and Graeme Hick was lbw fourth ball for an unusually meagre match aggregate of 10 runs.

Harvey struck again when Jack Russell dived to his right to hold an outside edge from Vikram Solanki, to give the Australian all-rounder figures of 3 for 36.

But Philip Weston stayed in control with five fours and a six in an unbeaten 38 and David Leatherdale drove Mark Alleyne through the covers for the winning boundary in the 13th over today.

It was Worcestershire's sixth win in a row in all competitions and now they have an unexpected day off before taking on Leicestershire in a Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy quarter-final at New Road on Tuesday.