County Championship: Simon Harmer's Essex beat Gloucestershire by nine wickets in three days

England's Dan Lawrence (left) helped Simon Harmer celebrate his second straight 13-wicket match haul

Simon Harmer produced another scintillating demonstration of spin bowling as he took 8-112 and match figures of 13-156 to help Essex beat Gloucestershire by nine wickets in just over seven sessions at Chelmsford.

Zafar Gohar helped Gloucestershire achieve some respectability as they were bowled out for 252 in their second innings.

The 27 year-old Pakistani hit 81 from 75 balls, including 13 boundaries, three of them maximums.

That left Essex requiring 78 runs to win and, although they lost Alastair Cook cheaply, Nick Browne (43 not out) and skipper Tom Westley (23 not out) saw their side home with an undefeated 64 runs stand.

It was the fifth time since joining Essex in 2017 that Harmer has captured eight wickets or more in an innings - and his tally for the season has now swelled to 40, an astonishing 28 of which have come in the last two successive home matches.

Gloucestershire began day three on 140-6, still trailing by 34, and with only four second-innings wickets intact after Harmer had captured five wickets the previous evening.

But they lost their first wicket to the ninth ball of the day when Jamie Porter castled Price with his third delivery of the morning.

Brother Tom Price continued the aggressive approach against Harmer to briefly prosper. He struck two sixes and two other boundaries in an over, the second which erased his side's overall deficit.

With his next delivery, Harmer persuaded Price, on 23, to attempt to go large once more, a terminal move when Matt Critchley took the catch at deep long-on.

Of Simon Harmer's 40 Championship wickets this season, 28 have come in Essex's past two home matches

But Gohar hit a 53-ball half-century as part of a stand of 65 in 10 overs before finally being deceived by Harmer in flight to be stumped.

Harmer wrapped up the innings five balls later and, although Essex lost Cook, it did not lessen the impact of his first-innings century.

The former England captain, now 37, occupied the crease for almost eight hours for his 145, a relentless quest for runs which shows no indication of abating.

His tally of runs for the Championship season now stands at 658 at a shade over 50. Maybe not at the scoring rate the current England management regime require but still invaluable for his county.

Essex now face County Championship leaders Surrey at The Oval, while Gloucestershire prepare for successive home games against Hampshire and Northamptonshire at the Cheltenham Festival.

Report supplied by ECB reporters' network

Essex head coach Anthony McGrath told BBC Essex:

"To get it wrapped up in three days is important coming-off the back of the T20, the season we've had and the heat. The lads can get their feet up now and prepare for next week at The Oval.

"We were a bit sloppy on Tuesday afternoon, losing seven wickets for 70 and I felt we should've got at least 400. It's something we can improve on. But we've got the job done and I'm pleased with how we've finished it off."

"Sometimes you feel a bit bad because you just expect Simon Harmer to do things like that. Other people you give a hug and a kiss if they've got a five-for, but with Simon you just say, well done. We must not take him for granted because what he does is an art.

"We're in the title conversation. We know we started slowly and couldn't turn draws into wins. We've missed out on batting points which hasn't helped. We knew we had to make a move in this period. We've fortunately won three out of three and we have a game in hand."

Gloucestershire head coach Dale Benkenstein:

"We knew that we would be up against it coming here playing a top side in the league and on their own turf as well. We expected the pitch to be in their favour - and why not?

"We set out to play positively in the first innings and not to go down wondering but things just didn't go our way. If we'd had just a little bit of luck, we might have gone on and got the score we achieved in the second innings.

"The difference in the game was that partnership between Alastair Cook and Tom Westley.

"The real positive for us was the performance by Zafar Gohar with both bat and ball. He stood out. That's important for us with the games we have coming up."