Australian all-rounder Hilton Cartwright is hoping Middlesex can complete victory over Gloucestershire at Lord’s on Monday to give themselves a boost heading into the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Cartwright took a career-best 4-33 as the visitors were dismissed for 210 in reply to Middlesex’s 455-8 declared, in which he failed to score, and made to follow on.

Gloucestershire closed on 66-2, needing another 179 runs to make Middlesex bat again on the last day, and Cartwright said: “It’s still a pretty good wicket to bat on and to get 12 wickets today (Sunday), the boys are very happy. It sets us up well for.

“Getting a good bowl-out these last few games has given me some rhythm and career-best figures is nice. Having the likes of Finn and ‘Helmy’, who know their stuff, and being able to bowl around them is handy as well.

“I think where we are – with one win, two losses and a draw – it’d be nice to get the win going into the one-dayers and gain a bit of momentum going forward for the rest of the season.”

Gloucestershire’s Chris Dent added: “We got off to a good start and then fell away a little bit. They bowled well and hit the deck hard and unfortunately we didn’t capitalise our start.

“We’d have liked to have gone in none down, but two gives us a chance – with eight wickets in the bank – to bat the whole day. That’s what we’ve got to do.

“The wicket’s pretty good, there’s not too many demons in it and if you get through one session with damage limitation then you’ve got a good chance to get through the next two.”