Hosts’ fightback impresses returning Peters

The visitors collapsed from a very strong position to be bowled out for 358 and Peters, while acknowledging his bowlers weren’t at their best, was happy with how the day finished.

He said: “At 300-4 and then 360 all out you’ve got to look at that as a positive end to the day.

“We were a bit disappointed with how it’s gone as we always like to bowl sides out a bit cheaper but the boys toiled away on a reasonably docile wicket and we hung in well.

“The last hour you can’t really fault how we did.

“We weren’t quite at the races and having played a lot of one-day cricket recently we didn’t quite have that focus on bowling maidens like we were doing earlier in the season and it took us a bit too long to get into it.”

Hamish Marshall’s innings of 145 was the outstanding contribution for Gloucestershire as Peters appreciated.

He added: “I thought Hamish Marshall played brilliantly and he was so positive that it took the game away from us for the first two sessions.

“But a bit of character was shown by the lads and to get the last six wickets for 50-60 odd was a good effort.”

And despite having to spend a full day in the field on his comeback from a serious finger injury, Peters was relieved to come through unscathed.

“It was nice to be back out there in the field and even though it was only a couple of overs, it was good to be back batting,” he said.