An innings of 112 not out at a run a ball with four fours and seven sixes from Matt Windows helped Gloucestershire Gladiators to an imposing 274 for six in their forty-five overs. In reply, Northamptonshire Steelbacks were always chasing a lost cause and could muster only 219 to lose by 55 runs under the Bristol lights.

Windows was particularly severe on his former team-mate Mike Cawdron. He hit three consecutive sixes in a final over that cost 24 and left Cawdron with the distinctly unpleasant figures of 9-0-91-1. He was not alone with some figures he would rather forget, but the way Windows set about the attack, nobody was safe.

Windows was helped by Australian all-rounder Ian Harvey with 52 from just 36 balls, while skipper Mark Alleyne weighed in with 43 useful runs once Harvey was out.

When the Steelbacks batted, it was initially David Sales who led the response to the Gladiators. He scored 51, but wickets were falling at regular intervals at the other end. Tony Penberthy picked up the challenge when Sales was out, reaching 64 from 51 balls as he tried to bring the asking rate within bounds.

However, when he was stumped by Jack Russell off the bowling of James Averis and Cawdron completed a miserable evening by getting a four-ball duck, the end was not far away. It came when Jason Brown skied Averis to the wicket-keeper, the ball after he had been dropped by Alleyne who circled underneath a swirling chance without laying a hand on it. The injured Darren Cousins did not come out to bat and the Gladiators confirmed their position at the top of Division Two.

© CricInfo