County Championship Round 1: Gloucestershire v Surrey

 

County Championship Round 1

Gloucestershire v Surrey

 

Preview:

County Championship starts do not come harder than a game against a Surrey side that disappointed in 2020, winning one and losing four Bob Willis Trophy matches, finishing fifth in the South Group, but that is packed with star names and that can count with Hashim Amla. Surrey will be desperate to do better in 2021.

In contrast, Gloucestershire are without both their overseas stars, with Kraigg Brathwaite still in preventive quarantine and Dan Worrall yet to arrive, but do welcome back James Bracey, who should become Gloucestershire’s first Test cap since Jon Lewis, sometime in the next twelve months.

2020 was a season of what might have been for the Shire, for whom an abandoned match against Northants and a near miss against Glamorgan were the difference between their eventual fifth place and a more than respectable third in the Group.

Gloucestershire are missing Ben Charlesworth (dislocated shoulder) and Jared Warner (side strain). Without Kraigg Brathwaite and Dan Worrell, James Bracey could be asked to open with Chris Dent, although he will also take the gloves, which could tempt the selectors to go for one of Miles Hammond and George Hankins to open, with Bracey dropping down the order and the loser of Hammond/Hankins missing out from the XIII. With five seamers plus Tom Smith in the squad, it seems likely that the choice of the bowler to miss out will be between Josh Shaw and George Scott, with the former probably favourite to play given his good pre-season form.

Surrey have an embarrassment of riches, with five England winter tourists and Amla available, even though Kemar Roach is waiting to leave quarantine. Surrey bring two spinners, but surely will not play both.  A top order of Rory Burns, Mark Stoneman and Hashim Amla with Ollie Pope to follow will test the Gloucestershire new ball attack. Similarly, Jamie Overton, Reece Topley, Matthew Dunne and Jordan Clarke will test the Gloucestershire openers.

With ten games played back-to-back and the Bristol track not normally helping the bowlers much, one suspects that both sides will be satisfied with a solid opening draw rather than risking defeat in the search for victory.

Let battle commence!

Day 1:

Six out of nine captains to win the toss decided to bowl and Chris Dent did not buck that trend, inserting Surrey. Looking, with an eye to the sky, Miles Hammond and Tom Smith missed out, with Gloucestershire fielding five seamers, supplemented by van Buuren, but lengthening the batting in the process. In contrast, Surrey included spin in the form of Amar Virdi, who is very much in the England frame, while the very promising seamer, Matt Dunne, missed out.

Omens are not so good for the Shire, with Surrey victorious in three of the last five meetings back to 2011, although the matches in 2011 and 2014 were both close. Only in 2015, when Surrey were unstoppable, was the match genuinely one-sided.

The sun came out intermittently to join the cold wind that saw most fielders wearing at least two sweaters, David Payne took the first over against two (currently) former England openers in Rory Burns and Mark Stoneman, opening with a solid maiden and the season was in progress. With Ryan Higgins solid at the other end, the first 21 balls of the day were dots, before Stoneman broke the sequence with a boundary. Rory Burns then took a boundary from David Payne before, two balls later, edging a nice outswinger, to George Hankins. Surrey 8-1 and David Payne with the first wicket of the season for the Shire. In the next over, the sequence repeated: boundary to Stoneman and, two balls later, Ryan Higgins trapped him LBW. Surrey 12-2 and in some strife.

However, when you have the opposition 12-2 and the new batsmen average 48.3 (Amla) and 50.5 (Pope), you know that there is a lot of hard work to do.  After 13 overs, with Surrey 34-2 and re-building, first Josh Shaw relieved Ryan Higgins, then Matt Taylor replaced David Payne. It looked as if the hard-won advantage might be slipping away until Ollie Pope went after Josh Shaw. Straight to Scott at Backward Point. 48-3. Thanks very much. It was to set the pattern for the day. Every time a partnership started to build, it ended abruptly.

Immediately afterwards we saw one of those bizarre, COVID-induced moments. Smashing drive from Amla off Taylor. Higgins a distant second in the chase. The ball then hopped the fence and went into the commentators’ marquee, where protocol established that the fielder could not chase it and the commentators could not touch the ball to return it. Some nifty footwork from Radio Bristol’s Mr. Lamb and a pass that might get the injury-strapped Bristol City interested. Problem solved and Surrey commentator, Mark Church, looking at the score and speculating hopefully how much lacquer was taken off the ball with the kick.

91-3 at Lunch. Amla a menacing 47*. Foakes on 8*. Surrey wrestling back the advantage yet, of the three sides batting first in Group 2, Surrey were in clearly the worst position.

As Amla passed serenely his fifty and the score advanced, Gloucestershire’s fine position in mid-morning was again threatening to melt away. Enter Josh Shaw to pin Amla LBW for 56. 109-4. Match back in the balance and Josh Shaw showing how much he has advanced since he joined the club. Then Ryan Higgins got his second LBW of the day and Foakes went for 26. Surrey 136-5.

Higgins to Jordan Clark. Edge to the waiting Bracey behind. 144-6 and Surrey’s careful pre-Lunch re-build in tatters. There had been 21 boundaries so far – 84 of 144 runs – and one wondered if the batsmen had forgotten how to grind out an innings instead of launching themselves at anything remotely loose. Case in point: between the 7^th and 8^th wickets there were 15 deliveries, with 4x4, 9 dot balls and 2 wickets. No strike rotation. No pushing singles and twos, just dot, boundary or wicket. All thud and blunder, little application. Josh Shaw was not complaining – he bowled Smith and Atkinson to sit on figures of 14-2-39-4. Surrey 185-8 and struggling.

The big question for the Shire was whether or not they could finish the job. However, in this task, the bowlers have found a willing ally in the Surrey batsmen. Jamie Overton was another to get a start and then get out: bowled by Sid Payne for 40; the fourth Surrey batsman to reach 20, but not to pass 40. With two genuine batting rabbits at the crease, the bowlers were scenting blood. And then, of course, the heavens opened.

That was that for the day. A day that, every time Surrey seemed to be getting back on an even keel, a wicket fell. It has been a good day for the Shire – 2-49 for David Payne. Wonderful figures of 19-10-35-3 for Ryan Higgins. 4-48 for Josh Shaw and a chance of best First Class figures on the morrow – now, the bowlers will want that final wicket to fall quickly and for the batsmen to make some runs to back up the fine bowling effort.

We will be back tomorrow to see what happens. You sense a huge opportunity here for Gloucestershire.

Day 2:

After only 70 of 96 overs were possible on Day 1, the Shire wanted to finish off the innings quickly and then get runs on the board.

On an overcast morning, although slightly less bitterly cold, David Payne took just three balls to get Topley to edge behind, finishing with 3-49 and Surrey, 220ao. All in all a good bowling effort, although there was a feeling that runs had come a little too easily at times against the fourth and fifth bowlers.

So, who would open with Chris Dent? Surprise, Surprise, it was James Bracey after all who, with the background of seagull calls, took first strike and started the Gloucestershire chase with a single from Reece Topley’s third ball. Topley soon settled into a testing rhythm, using his height to discomfort the batsmen. At the other end, Gus Atkinson was playing just his third match for Surrey, hoping to exploit the overhead conditions with his gentle medium pace more than Overton’s out and out aggression would. Either way, Chris Dent took the last three balls of Topley’s third over for 4, 4 & 2 and Gloucestershire were on their way. After ten overs it was 35-0 and the new ball thrust had been seen off. Jamie Overton entered the attack.

The fifty came up from the first ball of the thirteenth over with Dent 27* and Bracey 19*. It was almost alarmingly comfortable, with only one significant appeal in the first twelve overs and boundaries starting to flow. The selectors were at the ground, watching the action; talk was that they wanted to see Reece Topley, but they could well also be interested to see how James Bracey shaped up (and, just possibly, with the England opening position still not nailed down by anyone, even Chris Dent). At this stage they must have been enjoying the calm batting that they were seeing.

Dent reached his 50 (55 balls, 7x4, 1x6) with an imperious pull for six over midwicket and Gloucestershire were flying at 91-0, made at 4.8 per over. Surrey’s response was to bring on Amar Virdi. Down the track came Dent for a lovely boundary. The hundred up just five balls into the twentieth over and nine from the over. Bracey followed him to a more sedate fifty (81 balls, 4x4) as the strategy became clear: Dent was going to go after the fourth seamer and spinner, trying to make them too expensive to use, while taking any opportunity against the other bowlers. Bracey accumulated at the other end, offering a broad bat and tiring the bowlers. Finally, just as Surrey were eying the prospect of a really indigestible Lunch score, a disappointed Bracey fell LBW to Virdi, for 54. 139-1 and the Shire dominant. There was just time for Dent to add three more to move to 74* before lunch was taken at 142-1.

Tom Lace should have fallen to the fifth ball after Lunch. He slashed hard at Reece Topley, straight through the hands of Second Slip. The ball went for a boundary to add insult to injury. It was a hard chance, due to the speed of the ball, but one that should have been taken. This was symptomatic of the Surrey effort in the morning: even Virdi bowled a No Ball, there were misfields and a sense that their heads had gone down. However, despite Lace’s escape, a wicket fell rapidly after Lunch, but in unfortunate circumstances. Topley first bowled a outswinging jaffa that beat Chris Dent all ends up. Then, Dent went to leave the next ball, only managing somehow to inside edge it onto the stumps as he hesitated when lifting the bat over his own head. Dent out for 74 and the Shire 147-2.

Suddenly, it was tense again. Topley was bowling with good pace and getting a lot of movement. Van Buuren went after a wide one, edged to Third Slip, who knocked it up into the air. Second and Third Slips both lunged for the rebound, but were beaten to it by Ben Foakes who pouched the catch. 139-1 had become 157-3 and the Shire were wobbling.

For a time the bowling was energised and Lace and Hankins struggled to survive. Slowly though, they rebuilt and Hankins brought up the 200 in the 49^th over with a crashing cover drive. Hankins seemed to find life at #5 so much more to his liking than opening, as he did last season. At the same time, you could see why Middlesex were so disappointed to lose Tom Lace: he batted with great maturity and security. The fifty partnership came up with the batsmen looking increasingly comfortable. Topley was brought back for a third spell to restore order and immediately pinned Hankins LBW for 22. He had done a job but, as happened several times last season, he could not push on once the hard work of getting in was done. 209-4 and Topley proving a real handful, but getting little support. Clark tried the centre of the pitch and Ryan Higgins despatched him dismissively for successive boundaries either side of the wicket to put Gloucestershire in the lead. Higgins was looking to counter-attack and suddenly runs started to flow again.

Live by the sword. Die by the sword. Higgins missed a straight one and Atkinson hammered the ball into the pad. Higgins walked even before Umpire Blackwell raised the finger. 234-5 and hopes of 350+ and batting just once, receding. A crashing boundary off Topley took Lacy to his 50 (101 balls, 7x4): his first for the Shire. 244-5 at Tea, 24 ahead. Lace 52*, Taylor 0*. 102-4 in the session.

One more partnership and you felt that the Shire could take a stranglehold on the match. Two wickets and Surrey would be right back in the game.

The players came out wearing black armbands for the death of Prince Philip (a fair spinner, in his day), the watery sunshine enough to persuade Tom Lace to bat in a short-sleeved shirt and no sweater. After a quiet spell, he aimed a huge slog-sweep at a full Virdi delivery and departed for 65 (175 minutes, 9x4). 262-6 and those hopes of a lead of 150+, which had been rising again, had taken a another huge hit. Lace’s sleeping partner at the other end, Jack Taylor, had 3* from 48 balls, but was hanging in there and came to life crashing Overton through the Covers for four, visibly gaining confidence and becoming much busier afterwards, with Scott playing himself in, watchfully. Unfortunately, Scott was not able to take advantage: after 30 balls of almost complete passivity, the New Ball did for him. A wicket for the persevering Atkinson. And David Payne fell immediately afterwards to the still dangerous Topley. 282-3. Suddenly, that third batting point was looking in real danger.

However, Matt Taylor can bat very effectively when he applies himself and Jack Taylor held-on limpet-like at the other end and, as the light got increasingly gloomy, the day ended early with a rush of boundaries as the predicted rain arrived. The Shire 311-8, a third batting point booked. Jack Taylor 26*. Brother Matt, 13*. The lead 91.

The fourth batting point may be too much to hope for, but with Reece Topley already having bowled 22 overs, the Shire will hope that they can get some runs in the morning and then make inroads the second time around, with a lead over 100 in the bank.

Good day for the Shire, but they will think that it could have been even better after the fabulous start to the day. Another good day tomorrow and a 22 or 23-point win will beckon.

 

Day 3:

How many could the last two wickets add? Could the bowlers get among the Surrey batsmen again? Could the Shire set up a last day tilt for victory? Would the Bristol pitch flatten right out? Would rain ruin Gloucestershire’s chances?

So many questions. And it did not take long to get some answers. Jack Taylor fell quickly in the morning, bowled by Topley, adding just a single and Josh Shaw against the still fairly new ball was always going to be a catch-weight contest. Shaw finally edged behind off Atkinson. Just fifteen added and the lead a disappointing 106.

Reece Topley finished with a magnificent 5-66 and Gus Atkinson, 3-78.

Could Gloucestershire make inroads a second time? With the Surrey top five all current or former internationals, the sceptics thought not. However, something is not quite right about this Surrey side that, with so many stars on its books, should be doing so much better than they are.

Mark Stoneman has never been quite the same since taking a blow to the head in England colours. Many fans hoped that a trip down south would revive his form and confidence, but he continues to struggle. He had a terrible time, being dropped three times (a further chance off Burns also went begging), before Ryan Higgins finally put him out of his misery by thudding a straight one into his pads. In-slanted from round the wicket. Stoneman tried to turn it to leg, played all round it. Thanks very much. 41-1 from 12.1 overs. At this point, the bowler’s reward is to see Hashim Amla come in…

Matt Taylor was not at his best in the first innings, but now showed just how destructive he can be when he gets it right. He was getting big swing away from Burns, who was groping at him before getting Amla in his sights. Twelve balls scoreless, including one extraordinary shot that could have gone anywhere, but that ended up rolling to Second Slip off the face of the bat when it was turned towards his own pads (Amla had no idea where it had gone). Taylor angled one across him, Bracey took the edge and Amla walked without waiting for the umpire.  46-2.

In came Ollie Pope. Taylor gave him two sighters and then took his outside edge, with Bracey taking a good, low catch. Pope waited, possibly in the hope that it had not quite carried, but was sent on his way. 48-3 and Surrey in all sorts of trouble again.

Burns and Foakes had a big re-building job to do and set about it. Gloucestershire’s options were limited with Josh Shaw only bowling a single over before leaving the field at Lunch and not coming back out. They slowly worked off the deficit, despite Payne giving Foakes all kinds of problems. A boundary off Taylor brought up the fifty partnership and the hundred. Foakes edged and Warner (fielding for Shaw) almost took a low catch at Third Slip, although it seemed that the ball had not quite carried. Gloucestershire were trying their hearts out, but it was not quite happening for them.

Burns reached his fifty (93 balls, 5x4) and Surrey got into the lead. Taylor and Payne were seen off and on came Higgins and Scott, with the Shire desperately needing to end the partnership. The change almost brought a wicket as Foakes hit the ball into the covers and there was a beautiful “Yes! No! Wait! Sorry!” piece of calling. Lace misfielded, the batsmen went on the misfield, Had Lace’s throw hit the stumps, Burns would have been gone as Bracey scrambled up to the stumps to try to cover the throw. Once again, it was not quite happening, but enough was going on that you felt that three quick wickets were as likely as the hundred partnership. Higgins hit Burns on the pad. Loud shout, but probably a little too high and pitching outside leg. 118-3 and Surrey, if not on top, were grinding the bowling down.

Surrey were getting right on top. Runs were beginning to flow. Short ball from Scott. Compulsive hook from Burns sent up into orbit. David Payne underneath, half blinded by the Sun. Payne pouched it after what seemed like an age waiting. 145-4, effectively 39-4 and the good work done by Burns (74 runs, 130 balls, 13x4) was undone by a strange rush of blood. With Foakes on 49* and Smith at the other end, Bracey advanced to the stumps for Higgins, retreating again when there was a bye. Suddenly things were happening for Higgins: one ball outside off went through at one-third stump height, another swung in massively and bounced. Foakes finally reached his 50 (92 balls, 9x4) with a drive down the ground off Scott. He had been trapped in the 40s for what seemed like an age. Would his 50 release him? Not a bit of it! He continued unwilling, or unable, to score: 12 balls on 53 before van Buuren produced a horrible delivery that a more confident batsmen would have slapped away for six, but Foakes got two for thanks to a misfield. The spell was broken and, suddenly, if briefly, runs started to flow again.

As Tea approached, David Payne looked totally shot and, with the new ball coming in the last hour of the day, Chris Dent had to think about conserving his main bowlers without losing control. Last ball before Tea. Last effort from Payne. Straight through Smith like a shell. Off stump cartwheeling. Smith 27 and Surrey 187-5, effectively 81-5. An awful moment for Surrey to lose a wicket.

It was a seminal moment. Payne appeared exhausted at the start of the over, but visibly wound himself up for a final effort for the last two deliveries before the break. His cry of joy and sinking to his knees was a classic reaction.

Out after Tea, van Buuren and Matt Taylor in partnership and Foakes looking in trouble outside off stump every time Taylor got the 5^th stump line right. Taylor had two, loud LBW shouts: the first against Foakes looked well outside off, the second, against Clark, looked very close. Tension was rising again. Then Foakes pushed to Point and set off, not realising that Clark was totally uninterested in the run: George Scott’s shy missed, otherwise Foakes would have been on his way. Foakes was getting bogged-down, nervous and frustrated. However, he saw it though and, finally Matt Taylor had to be rested, with George Scott replacing him as the light got increasingly gloomy and the partnership passed 40.  Van Buuren finally found a magic ball, Foakes overbalanced slightly and Bobby Bracey whipped off the bails, but it seemed that the back foot was anchored. Three balls later the umpires took the players off for bad light. Not long after, as the ground staff applied full covers, the rain started to beat down and the picture looked very bleak.

232-5. 126 ahead. Match in the balance.

Gloucestershire are still favourites, but will need to wrap up the innings with the new ball. If Surrey bat past Lunch, a draw will be the most likely result.

Day 4:

The match situation looked pretty simple. If Surrey saw off the new ball and got past Lunch, the match was looking like a likely draw. With the likelihood that overs would again be lost at the end of the day, the prospects of Surrey getting far enough ahead to declare and bowl out the Shire, looked remote. The best chance of a result, barring an early clatter of wickets, was for Surrey to be bowled out 220 or 230 ahead.

What no one imagined is that is what would happen.

For most of the morning, little seemed to happen. The bowlers could not conjure chances. The pitch looked flat and the bowling did nothing. For the sceptics, this was their perfect Day 4 scenario: a stalemate on a dead Bristol pitch. The new ball came and went and the feeling of foreboding increased. Up came the Ben Foakes century, the Clark 50, the 200 lead. You even wondered if Surrey were trying to set up a declaration. Nothing was happening at all for the bowlers. A single chance came all that time… and was missed.

318-5. 15 overs into the new ball. All over for the Shire?

Then, the unexpected happened. Matt Taylor got one through Jordan Clark and Surrey fell apart. Clark fell for 52 (119 balls, 7x4). 318-6. An end open? Lunch approaching, the Rhino, who had had a quiet match so far, with the ball. Overton pinned LBW for 1. Atkinson came in. First ball full on middle and straight into the pad. Higgins on a hat-trick and 318-5 had become 327-8. Surely this was too late to matter?

Reece Topley took an age to come out, knowing that there were just 4 minutes to Lunch. There was some “chat” either way about his time-wasting and a suggestion that he was risking an appeal for Timed Out. However, it worked from the Surrey point of view, in that David Payne’s over was the last before Lunch and the hat-trick ball was delayed.

Foakes faced the first ball after Lunch and kept it out safely, but then offered a very low chance off Matt Taylor that Bracey took brilliantly – a real touch of Alan Knott in his dive and pouching. Foakes out for 133 (250 balls, 18x4). It was not a pretty innings. He seemed to be struggling for much of it, but he hung on and always forgot the previous ball.

In came Virdi. 331-9. Lead 226 and you felt that Surrey’s best chance of a win was if the last wicket fell quickly. A quick single. Confusion in the running. Tom Lace took aim from Mid-off and, this time, hit. Virdi was run out by a distance.

318-5 had become 333ao. It was an astonishing Surrey collapse.

Gloucestershire were set 228 to win from 63 overs minus anything that bad light took off. It looked unlikely, but Dent and Bracey set off with gusto. Topley, possibly stiff from his first innings exertions, did not have the fire of the first day. Atkinson was unable to keep a good line and length and offered plenty to hit. The result was that the Shire were 33-0 from just 5 overs and flying. On came Amar Virdi and suddenly the game looked different. A pinpoint maiden to Bracey was followed by a tight over from Topley. Suddenly Bracey seemed to think that he needed to release the pressure. He charged down the wicket and just lobbed a gentle catch to Mid-On (35-1, Bracey 14, 28 balls, 2x4). In came Tom Lace who lasted just six balls before edging low to 3^rd Slip. 36-2.

Virdi was bowling with great accuracy and allowing no liberties. Three overs. Three maidens before Chris Dent worked him square for two and spoilt his perfect figures.

Fifty up in the 13^th over. Then Topley bounced van Buuren who hooked a massive six. Last ball of the over driven for 4. 11 off the over. 13 overs, 60-2. Surely Gloucestershire couldn’t chase this? Virdi bowled a little short and wide and Graeme van Buuren cut powerfully for a boundary. Then a half-stopped on-drive to an over-pitched delivery went for another boundary. GvB was obviously trying to hit Virdi off his length and it was working.

The punishment that Topley had taken in his previous over led to Overton replacing him. Virdi met a similar fate and was banished to the naughty corner too, with Clark replacing him. It made no difference. Van Buuren was going after everything, playing a classic white-ball innings and no Surrey bowler was capable to sending down a straight Yorker at him. There were edges, mishits, lofted shots that evaded fielders – anything but classic coaching manual stuff, but he was winning the battle and Dent was keeping him company, batting busily, but taking no risks. Honestly, the England selectors could do worse than take a look at Chris Dent. Gloucestershire were going at 5-an-over and Surrey looked short of ideas.

The 100 came up with the second ball of the 21^st over, which was also van Buuren’s 5000 First Class runs. 103-2, 126 to win. A nominal run-rate required under 3. With the seamers failing to obtain control – or any realistic threat – Virdi came back and GvB crashed his first ball through the covers to reach his 50 (44 balls, 9x4, 1x6). You could not take your eyes off the cricket. Quick singles, carefully placed twos and all salted with boundaries. Every delivery was an event.

113-2 at Tea. Dent 41*. GvB 54*. 114 to win.

With a storm approaching across the Bristol Channel, the Shire had to hurry. Surrey helped, with both Virdi and Topley offering boundary balls with their respective first deliveries after Tea. Surrey knew that rain was coming and seemed determined to waste time as much as possible, showing that they were only thinking of hanging-on for the draw. The ground was bathed in sunshine still, but it was obvious that it would not last.

Two quiet overs and it almost looked as if the batsmen knew that they had time to spare and could play themselves back in after Tea. Up came Dent’s 50 (71 balls, 4x4), 144-2, 83 wanted. He was playing second fiddle and just closing-up an end so that GvB could attack at the other. Under the pressure, Virdi kept bowling no balls and the impression was that Surrey had given up on the game. Dent then hit Virdi over the top and the target was down to 73. As the first dark clouds appeared on the horizon, the batsmen were pressuring the fielders on the singles and twos and there were enough bad balls that boundaries were coming regularly. Short ball at medium pace from Topley, GvB pulled and straight over Virdi at Fine Leg for six. 61 wanted, GvB 84*. Amazing.

On came Clark. Dent pulled him gloriously for a boundary to bring the target under 50. The Sun went in and Gloucs started to hit out with even more urgency. 28 from the last 3 overs. 182-2. 45 wanted. As Surrey wasted time disgracefully, rain arrived, with 43 to win. It looked like a brief shower, but the light was becoming an issue again.

The rain cleared. Sun out and the groundstaff were actually jogging to get to the covers. Re-start at 17:20, with 10 overs lost. The batsmen just had to hit at everything and hope to beat the light and any further rain.

Overton bowled a short, wide, long-hop and van Buuren crashed it for 4. 33 wanted. GvB 97*.

A bouncer, outside off. Hook. Boundary. Van Buuren’s century, his first at Bristol and first since his debut season. 101* (91 balls, 15x4, 2x6). Brilliant. 29 needed.

 Van Buuren was now in full white-ball mode. 200-2. Dent 72*, GvB, 102*. Misdirected bouncer from Overton, hooked for 4 by Dent. Overton responded by flinging the next delivery down almost to the wide slip. A wide to help the cause. 20 wanted. Jordan delivers it in the slot ad GvB smashed it over the bowler’s head for 4. Next ball, a repeat. 12 to win. Wide, wide ball that Foakes couldn’t stop and a bye was added. Another boundary to Dent, just 7 wanted. A two, 5 to win. Dent thrashes the ball towards the boundary and Amla did not even chase, with the batsmen running an easy 3 as the ball stopped short of the rope. Comic cricket. 18 off the over. 2 to win.

Overton to Dent. Wide. Dent slashes. A boundary and Gloucestershire win with a lot of time to spare.

229-2, Dent 91* (97 balls, 9x4), Graeme van Buuren 110* (98 balls, 17x4, 2x6). It was a textbook chase. Surrey will wonder what might have been had they taken the rather easy chance that van Buuren had offered early in his innings, but their capitulation was sad to watch and one suspects that they would have lost even that catch had been taken. It is fair to say that they have must have some issues somewhere because such a talented squad should not be losing so regularly, even with a few players unavailable.

22 points for the Shire, second in the Group. It was a pretty good start to the season. Well played the Shire!!! A reward for persistence and positivity.

Retrospective:

Sometimes it is best to wait a couple of days to react after a game like this. It was an extraordinary finish to a most peculiar game that featured a mix of big partnerships and amazing collapses.

In the heat of the moment, the fan vote gave the MoM award to Graeme van Buuren. It was an emotional response and a logical one but, looking back at the game, the Captain had an extraordinary four days and probably deserved it most. Scores of 73 & 91*, scored at 88 runs per hundred balls. Calm captaincy when it seemed as if the match was slipping away. Critical stands with Bracey in the first innings and with van Buuren in the second that first set up a first innings lead and then the chase of the target, were essential to the win. Although he looked slow in comparison with van Buuren’s bombardment,  he scored a rapid pace, without taking great risks, by being busy – pushing ones and twos, looking for the boundary balls when they were there. And anchoring the chase, allowing Graeme van Buuren to enjoy him himself and play shots.

It was also a good game for the new coach. Ian Harvey played positively: even if not quite in the Ian Botham class (who is?) he knew how to turn around a match situation with bat and ball. It was remarkable to see the Shire take a game that had lost the best part of two full sessions, on a typically pretty flat Bristol pitch – the demons in the surface were largely in the minds of the Surrey batsmen – and get the win with positive cricket. Even losing a bowler, Gloucestershire were able to bowl out a star-laden Surrey batting line-up twice. Playing positive cricket like this may not work always. Not all sides will provide the facilities that Surrey provided with bat and ball, but it provides a new dimension to the team and one that will help them to compete with sides that have much larger cheque-books.

It was also a game in which almost everyone contributed. The top four all managed at least one substantial score. Bracey took some wonderful catches and looked just as good as Foakes. All four front-line seamers took wickets. And George Scott provided a critical breakthrough in the second innings.

Let’s not get over-excited. This was one game. And we now play the side that rolled us over very cheaply four times last season (twice in pre-season and twice in the BWT game). Come away from Taunton with a good draw or a win and then we can really start to get excited about prospects for the season.

Gloucestershire v Exeter University … and a Star Signing - 20210402

 

Gloucestershire v Exeter University

… and a Star Signing

April 2^nd 2021

 

When you wake up to the news on April 1^st that the Shire have signed a current Test captain and opening bat, addressing the issue of providing Chris Dent with the class support at the top of the order, one’s first reaction is to look at the date… and smile knowingly. When this news follows a second innings collapse to 34-3 against a modest university side, you say “if only…”

Actually, it is true and, as fans who were following the game pointed out, the collapse was not what it seemed to be.

Gloucestershire completed a huge win – 382 runs is a big margin in anyone’s book – declined to enforce the follow-on and re-shuffled the batting order to give extra batsmen practice. Chris Dent opened with a happily fit-again Benny Howell in the first innings and retired just short of a rapid century (82, with 13x4, in 91 balls), while James Bracey came into the side and opened with Benny Howell in the second. Although the opposition was not quite as strong as Surrey or Somerset, there were 50s for Howell, Dent and Ryan Higgins in the first innings and for van Buuren and Cockbain in the second, with plenty of batsmen getting some useful middle time. All six bowlers took at least one wicket, with the match figures 7-45 of Matt Taylor the star turn, supported by 5-38 for David Payne and 3-34 for Josh Shaw.

While Benny Howell was able to join the T20 campaign at the end of the season, he was clearly feeling his way back to fitness in the early games. Not called on to bowl in this match, his calm presence in the middle order and accurate medium pace were sorely missed in the Bob Willis Trophy campaign. Having Benny Howell available for red-ball cricket increases both the batting options and gives the captain someone to turn to as a partnership breaker, even if he is unlikely to bowl a lot of overs with the red ball.

So, pre-season has ended with a much more positive balance than in 2020. Four matches, three wins and a draw (although, you could argue that the 2-day game was a win, given that it was always going to be one day batting for each side and the Shire did obtain a massive advantage). In three red-ball innings, 400 has been reached twice and would surely have been reached a third time had Gloucestershire not declared after just 44 overs in their second innings against Exeter Uni. There will be harder tests to come: Somerset may not be quite as friendly at Taunton on April 15^th as they were on March 23^rd and opening Championship fixtures do not come tougher than Surrey, but the side should start with more confidence this season than they did the last.

However, even if Dan Worrall’s availability looks like being rather more reduced than initially looked possible, another item on the Gloucestershire bucket list for the season has been ticked off. If you have been following West Indian cricket recently, you will not have failed to notice that Kraigg Brathwaite averages over 40 in his last ten Tests and has just scored 126 and 85 against Sri Lanka as he tries to flog a result and a series win out of a dead North Sound pitch. Brathwaite is an old-style opener, who has accumulated as he has watched wickets falling at the other end, building an innings and narrowly failing to carry his bat in the first innings. You could not fail to be impressed by his approach, which included finishing the first day on 99*: a positively Boycottian example of self-denial.

Now, fans will have the prospect of watching Chris Dent walk out with the currently West Indies captain, who is in a bit of form and setting a solid base to the Gloucestershire innings. Available for most of the campaign bar the last two matches at Cheltenham, he will probably miss the season opener against Surrey at Bristol due to COVID-19 quarantine, but will still play seven Championship matches, which is unusual for such a high profile overseas player. It is a pretty good signing.

It is also a good signing on other levels. First, as a current Test captain, he will be able to help Chris Dent in the field. His vast experience – 68 Tests since 2011 – will be available to the young players in the squad. And, he is also a useful off-spinner (rather more than an occasional bowler, although by no means a front-line spinner), with a Test 6-for and took 3-25 against Bangladesh in Dhaka a few weeks ago: he will not bowl out a side on a greentop at Lord’s, but he will offer an additional option should the Shire come up with a pitch that offers something the spinners, which will undoubtedly give Tom Smith the support and encouragement that he needs to develop further.

For now, Gloucestershire can approach that opening match at Bristol on April 8^th with more confidence, even if neither of their overseas stars will be available. If the Bristol pitch lives up to its fame for lifelessness and we can come out of the game with a share of the points and an honourable draw, that would be a decent start.

 

Gloucestershire 2021 Preview

 

Gloucestershire 2021 Preview

March 27^th 2021

The brief pre-season is ending. On Monday, Gloucestershire’s 2021 pre-season finishes with a non-First Class, three-day friendly match against Exeter University, before Surrey visit Bristol on April 8^th to launch the Championship season.

The 2020 season was a pretty strange one. For a long time it looked as if their might not be a 2020 domestic season at all but, finally, after many doubts, we got a new competition – the Bob Willis Trophy – and a reduced T20 Blast. The Bob Willis Trophy was a great success. Regional Conferences, followed by a Final. Local derbies guaranteed. Middlesex supporters knew that two of their five games would be against rivals Surrey and Essex, despite having been left behind them in Division 2. Yorkshire and Lancashire would meet for northern bragging rights (in their opinion the other four sides in the Group were pretty nearly irrelevant). And, in Wales and the West, games against Somerset and Glamorgan would excite those around the Bristol area, while the fans in Gloucester and Cheltenham saw Worcestershire as their great local rivals. Yes, the Bob Willis Trophy had much to recommend it, particularly in the way that Division 1 and Division 2 sides were mixed, allowing fixtures that had not been seen for many years. The only criticism that you could make was that there should have been Semi-Finals too, with the three Group winners and the best second place side disputing them. 

A difficult 2020 red-ball season, but T20 success

How do you classify the Gloucestershire 2020 season? Any season in which you reach Finals Day is a good one, isn’t it? In reality though, the T20 run served mainly to soften some of the memories of a disappointing red-ball campaign that produced some highs, but rather more lows. And 2020 saw Gloucestershire unfairly ridiculed in national media questioning their right even to be considered a First Class side, let alone a Division 1 side, which, less we forget, they are.

The writing was on the wall in pre-season. Somerset absolutely steamrollered a team missing a few players – and innings and plenty was the margin – and then, in the Bob Willis Trophy match, dismissed Gloucestershire for 68 and 70 to win by a mere 315 runs. It was hard to remember that, after a heavy opening  defeat to Worcestershire, Gloucestershire had beaten Warwickshire and should have beaten Glamorgan. In a rain-shortened match the Shire reduced Glamorgan to 121-7 soon after Lunch on the last day and in desperate trouble. It was, though, a repeating pattern that the attack could not finish-off opponents. Glamorgan batted almost two sessions for a draw, losing just one more wicket in the process. Then, Somerset were in trouble at 176-9 and reached 237ao.  Even in the first match, Worcestershire were 223-2 after two days and 62 of their 100 overs and the match was still in the balance: they finished their innings at 428-5, with a huge lead, having treated the last 10 overs of their allotment of 100 as a T20 run chase.  So often it was a case of what might have been had the bowlers been able to take one more wicket. 

In the case of the Somerset match, there was also the suspicion that the attack had bowled itself into the ground against Glamorgan and that an exhausted side would have nothing more to give. Where other sides could rotate their attack without losing potency, Gloucestershire had to keep squeezing the same few front-line bowlers until they had nothing more to give.

However, once the whites and the red balls were packed away, the side were transformed. It was a bit like watching Popeye. Bluto would give him the most hideous beating and then, suddenly, out would come the spinach and the tables were turned. In the case of Gloucestershire, the spinach was a white ball and coloured pyjamas. They had a wonderful Blast campaign, only de-railed on Finals Day by having to bat first when conditions were at their most difficult. Up until then it was so easily possible to imagine the Shire lifting the trophy.

 The issues with the playing squad

The issues in the Bob Willis Trophy were not new. In the absence of Dan Worrall, the attack lacked depth, as witnessed by the inability to finish-off opponents. David Payne and Ryan Higgins were a decent new ball attack, Matt Taylor had his days, but there was too little to back them up, meaning that Higgins and Payne were almost always bowled too much and sides could recover while they rested. Josh Shaw is a good fourth seamer who has bowled some excellent spells, but is not ready to bowl as first change. There is the long-time lack of a spinner who can hold an end up for a whole session and attack for wickets when the wicket turns. And, the batting was too often fragile when Chris Dent got out. 

It is the old story of a County with a small playing squad that loses its best players regularly to wealthier teams. The frequent cry is that there is not enough money in the West to ensure sporting success, yet after a disastrous initial return to the English Premiership and a long purgatory in the Championship, Bristol Bears rugby turned a season of survival into a top-three finish and now bestride the Premiership with such authority that it will take a titanic collapse  for them not to be Champions. In fact, of the twelve English Premiership teams, Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Worcester are all in the West and Exeter, the Southwest. Money is there in the West for elite sport, at least in rugby.

 Looking forward to the 2021 County Championship

What will 2021 bring? For a start, it provides yet another one-off Championship format. 

·       Three groups of 6, seeded according to 2019 Championship final positions, with minor adjustments to allow local derbies when they do not affect the seedings significantly. 

o   We see this  in Gloucestershire’s group. Hampshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey make up a powerful-looking group, with two pairs of strong local rivalries.

·        Each team to play the others in its group, home and away.

·        The top two in each group will play four more games, as Division 1, two home and two away against the top two in the other groups, with the winners of the division crowned County Champions.

·       The 3^rd and 4^th placed sides in each group will play the equivalent teams from the other groups in Division 2 and the 5^th and 6^th placed sides in each group will form Division 3.

Gloucestershire, seeded fourth in their group, will need a remarkable turnaround in fortunes to manage a top-two finish (but then, who would have predicted the success of Derbyshire and Middlesex in 2020?) A solid, mid-table finish and avoiding the humiliation of a demotion to Division 3 will be the aim of the season, even if one suspects that the squad is, once again, far better-suited to the white-ball game than to the red. 

The 2021 Squad

The playing staff are little changed in 2021. Dan Worrall returns and Jared Warner joins the staff

Bowling options:

Back in 2016, Dan Worrell looked like being potentially a new star for Australia. Three ODIs and a fine reputation made promotion to the Test side look likely, but he has been injury-plagued since (foot fracture, two back injuries and a hamstring problem) and has fallen out of contention. No longer a promising young quick – he turns 30 in mid-season – 2021 will be an important season for him. He knows that he can expect a lot of bowling for Gloucestershire and, if he has any hope of further international honours, needs to make his mark now. The good news is that he has managed to play a fair amount of cricket already in 2021: 41 overs for South Australia against New South Wales and 44 against Western Australia, almost bowling is side to victory on the last day in the latter match. Apart from that, he has played a number of Big Bash and 50-over matches. He looks fit and up for the challenge.

Now that he is no longer in the Australian set-up, he can play the full season in all formats, which will test his body. Gloucestershire fans know that if he can stay fit and if he can show the form that he showed in flashes in past seasons, he will fix at least one of the existing problems in the attack.

The other bowling change with respect to 2020 might just fix another problem. Warner has been a Yorkshire 2^nd XI fixture but, despite two loan periods at Sussex, has little 1^st XI experience. A Division 2 debut for Sussex, early in the 2019 season, provided his best bowling figures of 3-35, before a second game for Sussex in 2020 saw him playing a bit-part as second change, while Ollie Robinson laid waste to Middlesex. A First Class debut followed for Yorkshire in a rain-affected Roses match in which, once again, he had little to do. Warner is well thought of as a seamer and could be competing for a place with Josh Shaw, providing injury cover and much-needed depth in the seam reserves and encouragement to both to pull out a bit extra to seal their place in the side.

More disappointingly, the only change in the spin department – the third problem with the Gloucestershire attack – is a departure. George Drissell, still only 22, has been released after struggling to make much of an impact. A weak 2^nd XI campaign in 2020 seems to have convinced management that he will not make it at the top level, while the progress made by Tom Smith in 2020 has given him a vice-like grip on the #1 spinner spot. A career average of 50 will have to come down substantially if Tom Smith is to become an attacking option in the Championship and there is no guarantee that his T20 success will translate into success with a red ball in hand however, with most Championship cricket likely to be played on green, seaming pitches, his ability to contain the batsmen will at least allow the quicks some rest.

Batting options:

In the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, runs were in short supply. After a good start, Chris Dent barely scored a run – 170 runs at 24.3 – was a poor return for a player who has been consistently one of the highest run-scoring openers in the country for the last few seasons. It contrasted sharply with his excellent T20 form. Only Graeme van Buuren averaged over 30 and, while 173 runs at 24.7 was a disappointing return for Ryan Higgins, in his case, mitigation was provided by his 17 wickets at 23 and having to bowl far more overs than was good for him. Gloucestershire will need big runs from Chris Dent and will look to Ben Charlesworth to show that a poor 2020 season that ended with five cheap dismissals and a run of four single-figure scores, was just a blip: if the two can see off the new ball regularly, there will be less pressure on Bracey and Lace at #3 & #4 and the chance of some decent scores to defend. 

In 2021, the hope is that Bobby Bracey will be available for most, if not all of the season and will stiffen the top order, compensating the loss of Gareth Roderick to Worcestershire. A good season with the bat will keep Bracey in the minds of the England selectors, who have had him as a travelling reserve with the squad since Test cricket resumed. What Bracey needs now is to return to the County side, to play matches and to score runs. At the same time, Gloucestershire have recognised his importance by making him vice-captain of the Championship side. 

Much will be expected from Tom Lace in 2021. A return of just 73 runs from just three matches and four innings, was less than he would have hoped for. With Benny Howell available again, there should be stronger competition for batting places in the middle order. This will hopefully bring out the best in Jack Taylor, who cut a sad figure in the Bob Willis Trophy side last season: excellent form in the pre-season games will make the supporters hope that he will supply middle-order runs.

Coaching:

The loss of Richard Dawson to England shortly before the start of the season was a deserved recognition for him and an unexpected setback for the Shire. Deputy Coach, Ian Harvey, takes over as interim coach. 

Pre-season 2021

The short pre-season in 2020 could not have gone worse. In 2021, the Shire are at least unbeaten in their three matches so far. The two-day game against Somerset at Taunton was played as 12 v 13. Wickets for Payne and Shaw and fifties for Lace, Taylor, Higgins and Scott saw Gloucestershire restrict Somerset to 251-7 on Day 1 and reply with 420-6, (with two “retired outs” making the official score 420-8), putting young Ned Lennard to the sword. The equivalent game in 2020 had been brutally one-sided, but this was far more promising. The game was followed by two wins in T20 matches at Bristol against the same opponents, with both sides mixing-up up their XIs between the two matches to give more players some practice. In the first, Gloucestershire hung on for a narrow win, with Ned Leonard again coming in for some brutal punishment, particularly from Benny Howell. In the second, a target of 178 was chased-down with an over to spare, largely due to Jack Taylor’s astonishing assault on Marchant de Lange (62 in 37 balls, with 5x6), added to his runs in the red-ball game, this suggests that his batting woes of 2020 have been at least partly forgotten.

At very least, the bowlers have all (apart from Dan Worrell) got some overs in their legs and some wickets to their name in the three games and all the major batsmen have produced at least one good score.

 

Will Gloucestershire be competitive in 2021?

Realistically, Somerset and Surrey will battle it out for the top two spots in the Championship group. It is bad luck that they will be Gloucestershire’s first two opponents. In contrast, the Hampshire game that follows will be a marker: Hampshire, #3 seed in the group, have been Division 1 strugglers in recent seasons and will possibly be the best indicator of Gloucestershire’s true level. The games with Leicestershire and Middlesex that finish the first half of the season will be looked upon as the best chances for success, although, if they can continue the progress that they showed in 2020, Middlesex may well turn out to be the biggest threat to the big two in the group. 

With these first five matches to be finished by May 9^th, it is a safe bet that seam will dominate the first half of the campaign. If Dan Worrall and David Payne can stay fit and form an effective new ball partnership, backed up by Higgins and one of Taylor/Shaw/Warner, Gloucestershire should have a competitive seam attack at least. What is less certain is how well the top order will cope with the seam attacks that will be thrown at them: Somerset are likely to pick a far stronger XI than the one that was repelled so comfortably in the pre-season friendly and there will be no easy games in the group.

Probably, fourth place in their group is a reasonable aspiration for Gloucestershire in the Championship and the most that they are likely to achieve. Anything less would be seen as a major disappointment, if not entirely unexpected. In contrast, anything less than reaching the knock-out phases of the Blast would be a major surprise. 

Spare a thought for the absentee in 2021

Bob Hunt – Sir Robert to his many fans – managed just one and a half days of commentary in 2020 and, after many seasons of following and reporting on the Shire, has hung up his mike due to ill health. His cheerful enthusiasm and sense of fun will be missed by listeners and co-commentators alike.

Wishing you well, Sir Robert.

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 5 - Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire

 

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 5

Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire

06/09/2020

 

Preview

So, this strangest of First Class seasons ends for all but two of the teams. Despite some initial doubts, the regional format of the Bob Willis Trophy has been a success and mostly applauded by the fans. Such a success that it is possible that it may return in 2021, potentially with a longer knock-out phase to decide the Champion County.

Realistically, Gloucestershire’s interest in the tournament ended when the Glamorgan ninth wicket pair held out for a draw back at Sophia Gardens. With such a compressed format and so little rest between games, the Somerset debacle was sadly inevitable. Tired bowlers made a supreme effort for two sessions when they must have been hoping for an extra day of rest, before the Somerset fightback knocked the stuffing out of the side.

A team with a small playing staff has few options to rest players or to cope with temporary loss of form. This game is now a dead rubber, with seemingly little hanging on it. However, look again. A win could push the Shire as high as third in the Central Group, which would be a reasonable return for the season, especially with the T20 side pushing for a Quarter-Final slot; defeat could see the Shire finish bottom, which would certainly start the wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the less positive fringe of the supporters.

The Shire’s final First Class match of the season will see the return of Bobby Bracey. Although he did not, in the end, despite rumours that he was very much in the frame for a debut in the final Test, get a match for England, but he spent a fair part of that game on the field as a substitute fielder. A surprise entrant in the original squad of 50, he made every cut in the squad and was just one stubbed toe from debut at the end. With the addition of James Bracey and Tom Lace, the Gloucestershire top order looks far stronger than the line-up of Dent, Hammond, van Buuren, Hankins, Higgins and Taylor that so nearly hung on long enough to get the draw against Worcestershire. If Chris Dent can translate his brutal T20 form into more red-ball runs (we forget that he scored two, fine fifties and was the standout batsman in that BWT defeat against Worcestershire, very much in his finest “Horatius at the Bridge” mode), there is no reason why the Shire cannot score some big runs.

[Stop Press: Chris Dent is out, injured for the game and not in the 13. He suffered a severe back spasm during his T20 innings against Worcestershire.]

While the batting, despite the catastrophe of the game at Taunton, looks to be getting into some kind of shape, the bowling is another matter. In the first four games, it has always required one of the triumvirate of Taylor, Payne and Higgins to fire and hope for some support from Josh Shaw, or Ben Charlesworth, or George Scott. There is no question that when the support bowling comes on, or one of the three main bowlers has an off-day, the intensity drops. Similarly, the lack of a spinner who can either attack for wickets, or tie an end down for ten overs and make the batsman give away his wicket at the other end, has hurt the Shire a lot. The shopping list for 2021 definitely includes someone with some extra pace and a quality spinner (imagine Tom Smith having an Adil Rashid or a Jack Leach at the other end to support him): Gloucestershire definitely missed a trick by not trying to sign Dominic Bess.

The lack of bowling depth has cost Gloucestershire dear at least twice this season: the Glamorgan and Somerset ninth wicket partnerships were at least in part due to the need to rest bowlers when a stronger side would have been able to go for the throat. However, needs must. Ryan Higgins, David Payne and Matt Taylor will be wound up for one last effort on what will undoubtedly be yet another dead surface at Bristol and, hopefully, it will be enough to overcome a spirited, but strictly limited Northants side that suffers from many of the same limitations of resources and squad depth as the Shire.

Finally, one cannot finish without mentioning the end of a commentary era. Bob Hunt – the Shire’s own Sir Robert – has finally decided to hang up his mic after an injury-hit season that has seen him miss a series of games. He has been the voice of the Shire (although occasionally he forgets that he is at the County Ground and not at the stadium in Nailsea, cheering on Forest Green) for 32 years and will be sorely missed. The tributes from his fellow commentators have been touching. Sir Robert is one of that endearing breed who have made County cricket FUN and have helped to fuel the tremendous surge in popularity of the County Championship over the last ten years. Happy retirement, Sir Robert (and careful with that bad back)!

And a final message to the team on the last Bob Willis Trophy game: #WinItForSirRobert

 

Day 1:

MATCH ABANDONED DUE TO A COVID-19 VIOLATION.

How was this possible? Putting aside the fact that Gloucestershire’s pre-Lunch batting display was almost as bad as against Somerset, but with far less excuse in terms of the attack that it was facing, the teams played a full session after a major violation of biosecurity had happened.

This was not a trivial “I slipped home to grab a bacon butty on the way to the ground” violation. This was a player who has a positive test for COVID who had been in close contact with playing squad members shortly before showing symptoms. Right now, the circumstances are still quite unclear: when did the (unnamed) player fall ill? When was the PCR taken? Who was aware that the player was ill, potentially with COVID?

Presumably, the Northants squad (and potentially some of the Gloucestershire team) now face quarantine and a succession of PCR tests until cleared of infection. On Friday, Gloucestershire are supposed to play Northants at Wantage Road in the Blast: it is inconceivable that the game can go ahead.

What happens to the points from the Bob Willis Trophy match and, if cancelled, the Blast game, is a good question. Whatever the match situation when the abandonment happened, Gloucestershire have been denied the chance to win this match and, potentially, a critical Blast game. Should they be punished for it by taking just the 8 points for a draw (as it stands, Northants would take 10)? The ECB how has a tricky and precedent-setting decision to take.

Update (20:40BST): At present the match is being listed as “No Result”, with no points, as if it has not happened.

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 4 Somerset v Gloucestershire

 

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 4

Somerset v Gloucestershire

22/08/2020

 

Day 1

Both sides need the win to retain some interest in the competition. For Gloucestershire, defeat would confirm exit from the competition. For Somerset, there would be an if and a but, however, their imperious need is to take more points from this round that Worcestershire to control their fate in the last round (in which they face the Pears).

The big problem that sides have had time and time again playing Somerset, this season, is to get Somerset into apparent serious difficulties, only to discover a huge sting in their tail.

·        In the first round, Warwickshire had Somerset 226-8 and were fighting their way back into the match: Somerset declared on 413-9 when the ninth wicket fell.

·         Against Northants, 114-9 became 166ao and a match-winning first innings lead.

·         Against Glamorgan, 149-8 and 189-9 became 296ao.

So, when the Shire had Somerset 176-9 they should have known better than to think that that Somerset were in a deep cowpat.

This season, Somerset’s 9^th wicket partnerships average 53.4 and the 10^th averages 65.5: no other partnership averages even 35.

Up to then, things had gone pretty well. David Payne, Ryan Higgins and Josh Shaw had gone through the top order pretty comfortably. The Cidermen were 89-5 and looked like a man after his second glass of scrumpy: a bit wobbly. Bartlett and Craig Overton set about a recovery and had added 75, leaving the Shire’s faithful (there are still a few, I believe) to think “here we go again”.

As a literary lot, they were probably thinking about the symbolism of “The Agony and the Ecstasy” as applied to West Country cricket. There has been a fair bit of the former and not so much of the latter in the last few decades. At 164-5, with Bartlett and Overton accelerating, the former was growing. 28 balls later, Ryan Higgins had two wickets, Sid Payne had two and you felt safe in switching to the latter. After all, there is a reason why Jack Brooks calls himself “Brooksy Ferret” on social media, not that there are many rabbits in the Somerset tail to come in after.

Eleven overs of mayhem. 61 added. Massive momentum shift. You almost thought that it was a strategic move by Jack Brooks to get out as soon as Bartlett had got his century to make sure that the bowlers would get a few overs in at the Gloucestershire openers before the Close. Not even Jack Brooks though would have expected to be deep into the middle order come the Close.

Suffice it to say that Chris Dent is currently top-scorer with 5 and that Matt Taylor came in as the SECOND nightwatchman to see off the best part of 5 overs. From 9-4 after 7.2 overs, 13-4 after 12 at the Close seemed like riches.

Gloucestershire’s first order of business in Day 2 is to add the 25 more runs needed to avoid the Follow-On. It is not a given that they will do it.

Tom Lace, this is your moment. The Shire needs you to show why you were rated so highly by the Lord’s faithful.

 

Day 2:

There are days when it is a relief to be in a mountain region where I barely have Internet and certainly cannot post match reports with the occasional and intermittent signal that apears. Today has been one of them.

If the Shire thought that things could only get better after Day 1, they were rapidly disabused of so presumptuous a notion. There were two, brief moments when it looked as if it could be a contest: for the first half hour, Matt Taylor, the second nightwatchman hung around and the score approached the Follow-On mark. Once he fell, it was a procession, mostly of defeatist shots until, finally, Ryan Higgins, who was hanging-on, became the final wicket. If Gloucestershire needed a reminder of the step-up in class required in 2021, this was it. It was that pre-season friendly all over again but, on this occasion, possibly even more one-sided.

76ao was a new season low for the Shire and, as some doom-mongers stated gleefully, one of their lowest-ever scores against Somerset. Suffice it to say that the partnership of 20 between Tom Lace and Matt Taylor is Gloucestershire’s highest of the match so far and that only Lace, Taylor and Higgins reached double-figures. It was pretty grim.

Somerset batted again, reportedly searching for a target well over 400, which would require “batting well into Day 3”. In fact, they were able to declare more than half an hour before the Close, leaving 8 overs at the batsmen, after setting 385 to win, to which Gloucestershire have responded with 14-3. Momentarily the Somerset juggernaut had been stopped by Sid Payne getting Byrom with the final ball of his second over to leave the Cidermen 12-1 but, from there, it was one way traffic as Lammonby and Tom Abell both registered 101* to trigger the declaration.

To have any hope of survival, the Shire needed a century from the Captain and a lot of help from the weather, but Chris Dent’s match contributions have been 5 & 4 and, of rain, nary a sign. After his excellent start against Worcestershire, Chris Dent is yet to reach double figures and, when he falls quickly, the rest of the batting seems to lose heart. After Somerset had scored at will on a pitch that seemed to carry no threat, suddenly the bowling looked a completely different matter and the pitch, a pit of vipers.

The match will do well to get to Lunch on the third day. Let’s face it, we have been awful, but it has been a learning experience and we now know how much we have to do to survive in Division 1 in 2021.

 

Day 3:

The good news: Ryan Higgins scored 21, to match Tom Lace’s top score from the 1^st innings.

The bad news: only Graeme van Buuren, with 15, of the rest of the batting, got into double figures.

The embarrassing news: The Shire may escape with a totally undeserved draw if Storm Francis does wipe out all cricket around the country on the last day of the match, as is predicted.

In the 24 overs possible due to rain and bad light, Gloucestershire have gone from 14-3 to 63-8 and have been utterly humiliated. The match will produce a mass of new records for Gloucestershire, we are informed, all of them showing what a huge job it will be to survive next season. It has illustrated the gulf between the cricketing haves and the have-nots and the huge step-up between Division 2 and Division 1 for a side of modest resources and squad depth.

If we did not realise what a task awaits the Shire in 2021, we do now. Somerset have been consistently the strongest side in the Championship over the last decade and more so since Durham’s disproportionate punishment, but a side hoping to justify its existence – and the survival of the six “have nots” is again under threat from the ECB’s plans to dismantle County cricket as we know it – it needs to be able to compete at this level, even if ultimately defeated: the Shire have not done that.

 

Day 4:

Would Storm Francis save the Shire from defeat, even if it could not save them from humiliation in the match?

A gloomy (if you are a Gloster, looking for a miracle) look at the forecast suggested that the weather would clear from the West and that play would be possible at some point in the afternoon. And so it was. The whole sorry spectacle was mercifully brief. Play was possible after Lunch and not even the threat of more rain arriving from the west was sufficient to inconvenience Somerset to any degree; in fact, it just concentrated their minds further.

The Shire were bundled out for 70. Craig Overton and Jack Brooks took the last two wickets in around fifteen minutes of play. The last four wickets had gone down for the addition of nine runs in 40 balls: it was as complete a capitulation as a side could desire to impose on its local rivals.

The Somerset attack was relentless and, when the opening bowlers were rested, the intensity remained as high as ever. This is the biggest single difference that sides find between Division 1 and Division 2 cricket.

What it means:

Somerset took 20 points from the game. With Worcestershire only managing a high-scoring draw, Somerset will top the group if they draw with the Pears, taking 2 bonus points in the process. Worcestershire need either a win, or a draw in which they score 400 with the loss of no more than 5 wickets in 110 overs and then limit Somerset to under 200 in their first innings. In other words: it is almost impossible for them to top the group without the win.

Gloucestershire are in a four-way struggle for the wooden spoon in the Central Group. The Northamptonshire win over Glamorgan and Warwickshire draw with Worcestershire move both of them above Gloucestershire, with just 11 points between third and last in the Group.

A Gloucestershire win at Nevile Road in the final round would guarantee that they finish 3^rd or 4^th in the Group: a respectable result. Defeat would leave the Shire depending on Glamorgan losing too to avoid finishing bottom of the Group.

Currently, Somerset and Derbyshire would qualify for the Final, with Essex needing to better the Derbyshire points haul in the last game to overtake them. However, the South Group is still wide open, as Middlesex play Essex in the last round and could top the group themselves with a win or, with a draw, allow Kent to slip through in top place. It would be very difficult though for either Kent or Middlesex to reach the Final: Middlesex can only reach 83 points, which is unlikely to be enough. There is no combination of results in South Group that would allow Hampshire to qualify, even with a win against Kent in their final game, although they could finish 2^nd.

Bob Willis Trophy Round 3 - Glamorgan v Gloucestershie

 

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 3

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire

15/08/2020

 

Day 1

Both sides need the win to retain some interest in the competition. Last season, Gloucestershire pipped Glamorgan to promotion, the win in the corresponding fixture was the difference between a 3^rd and a 4^th place finish for the Shire. This adds a little extra zest to this local derby.

In this situation, to lose the day to rain was a disaster for both sides, but there was never very much chance of getting on the field with a lot of water on the covers and more rain falling throughout the day.

 

Day 2

With one day lost already, the last thing that this match needed was to lose half of the second day too. With more rain forecast, it may take some collusion from the captains to force a result although, in this strangest of seasons, it is not clear that that will happen, even if enough play is possible on the last two days to make it an option.

For what it is worth, Gloucestershire named what was likely to be the best side to try and force a result in bowler-friendly conditions, with Tom Lace replacing Jack Taylor and David Payne replacing spinner, Tom Smith, to give stronger batting and a powerful, 5-man seam attack. In contrast, Glamorgan, unexpectedly, did decide to play a spinner: did they know something that we do not?

A desperately slow morning mini-session saw the Glamorgan openers survive, but with the bowlers exercising a such a stranglehold, including 36 consecutive dot balls, that it was astonishing that no wickets fell. Josh Shaw changed that straight after the interval with two superb deliveries to remove both openers in consecutive overs. With Matt Taylor, David Payne and George Scott chipping-in with wickets, Glamorgan staggered to 71-5, leaving Billy Root hanging-on with Douthwaite until Tea.

Sadly for the Shire, a downpour during the Tea interval ended play for the day and, with just 48 overs possible over the first two days, more rain expected and Somerset seemingly well on the way to victory against Warwickshire, Gloucestershire’s interest in the competition looks to be in the propinquity of its ultimate and regrettable termination.

At 80-5, the only remote hope for the Shire of a uncontrived result is to finish the innings off quickly in the morning and to try to get enough of a lead to allow a victory push on the last day. It would need a lot of luck with the weather and some very good play from Gloucestershire and correspondingly poor from Glamorgan to make it possible. Do not bet too much on it happening.

Day 3

Let us get one thing straight. If, as appears likely, Somerset finish off Warwickshire, to make it three wins from three, even an unlikely defeat to Gloucestershire in the penultimate round would leave them strong favourites still to win the Group, needing only a draw and a reasonable haul of bonus points in their final game against Worcestershire. There is an “if” and a “but” if the weather plays favourites, however, three wins and two draws which, on this year’s scoring system, is equivalent to four wins, should get a team very close to the Final and three wins and a draw will be competitive in a Group, but unlikely to be enough to qualify.

The bottom line is that Gloucestershire had to make the running and use what play was available to best effect. Well, they have done it and in style. The only downside was that, after polishing off the Glamorgan innings quickly in the morning, the need to chase quick runs meant that a batting point was sacrificed in the attempt to move the game along quickly. Batsmen took risks that they would not normally have taken and wickets fell. However, after losing both openers quickly, Graeme van Buuren, Tom Lace and, especially, Ryan Higgins, scored runs quickly and in great enough quantity that Gloucestershire have a real chance of winning.

David Payne was irresistible in the morning and, if Ryan Higgins was not quite up to his usual standards, straying just a little in line and length, Payne showed just what the Shire were missing from their attack in the Warwickshire win. And then Josh Shaw came on and took the last wicket with just his third delivery of the morning.

If the lead of 65 was many fewer than it might have been had quick runs not been the priority, Chris Dent wanted to get the Glamorgan openers back in and take a couple of wickets. Selman and Hemphrey survived the 14 overs, but the score – 23-0 at the Close – shows just how tough the Gloucestershire bowlers made it.

Glamorgan start the final day 42 behind and will be praying for rain. With 98 overs to be bowled in the day, their very slow rate of scoring means that they may not even be safe even if they bat to Tea. The Shire have an excellent chance to make it 2 wins from 3 although, with Somerset on the point of victory themselves, they may have to win their last two games to have a chance of topping the Group and, given Somerset’s form, that would be a huge task. However, given the degree of doom-saying after the heavy pre-season defeat to Somerset and the loss to Worcestershire, even to contemplate the possibility of fighting to top the Group seems like a miracle.

However, there is a lot of hard work to do in the morning to set up a chase. And then, the target has to be hunted-down before we can think of the Somerset game.

 

 

Day 4

Your mission, Chris, should you decide to accept it, is to take ten Glamorgan wickets in no more than about 60 overs, with a tiring attack and then chase down what could be a tricky target in the evening.

Could Ryan Higgins make that tiny adjustment to his line and length that would change edges passed into edges taken? Could a tired David Payne rouse himself for one more effort? Would Mark Taylor and Josh Shaw give the required support, nipping-in with vital wickets? For most of the day things looked good, although you always felt that the Shire were one wicket behind their needs.

In the end, it was not to be, as tiring bowlers were unable to find the magic ball to breakthrough a stubborn ninth wicket partnership. Two tough chances off van Buuren went down right at the end, but it was already too late by then, with the asking rate over ten, even if the scoring through the day was so slow that there was a chance of a chase still almost up to the last hour.

When Matt Taylor took two early wickets to convert the overnight 23-0 into 23-2, the Shire looked on their way, but partnerships kept eating-up overs. At 92-3, it looked as if Glamorgan would escape, only for Higgins to pin the adhesive Selman. 92-3 rapidly became 121-7, but the effort proved to be too much for the attack to sustain. Cooke and Bull hung around together for 13.3 overs and you could see the match was slipping away. A wicket for van Buuren just before Tea re-kindled hope, but Payne, Higgins, Taylor and Shaw were too tired to exploit the opening and the injured van der Gugten batted out of his skin to survive 24 overs until, finally, Chris Dent accepted the inevitable.

Right now, the bowlers will have just three days to rest before taking on Somerset. You wonder how much this match has taken out of them and what the consequences may be if Gloucestershire are in the field on Saturday.

In an unexpected twist, rain denied Somerset what had appeared to an inevitable victory but, Worcestershire pulled-off a surprise victory over Northants. As a result, Worcestershire go top by a single point from Somerset. The two face each other in the final round of games, setting-up what could be a grandstand finish in the Central Group. In contrast, Gloucestershire are 23 points back and now, really, need a mathematical miracle to top the Group, starting with winning their last two games.

 

Aftermath:

Here I am, in deep, verdant valley in Northern Spain, with a very slow internet connection, but stunning views through the window.

What to make of the Glamorgan game? Well, to put it bluntly, it seems manifestly unfair that, having made the running all game, Gloucestershire took home exactly the same number of points (11) as Glamorgan, but those are the rules. The Shire sacrificed at least one and possibly two batting points chasing quick runs, in the hope of forcing a result. The upshot is that they are still a lot closer to the bottom of the Central Group (17 points ahead of the hapless Northamptonshire) than they are to the top (23 points shy of surprise leaders, Worcestershire). Of course, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, it might have been better to bat an extra hour, give the bowlers a little more rest between innings and have a short, sharp session with the ball before the Close on Day 3: of course, no one could know at the time that the Glamorgan tail would give tired bowlers far more problems than their top order. Or that Chris Cook would prove so adapt at marshalling resistance from a seemingly hopeless position.

The good news for the Shire is that their last game is against Northants and it should present a good opportunity for a win. The bad news is that Somerset desperately need the win points against the Shire to keep their chances of reaching the Final alive and will go hell-for-leather for them. However, Gloucestershire are playing far better now than the side that was rolled-over so easily by Somerset in the pre-season game and seem to be finding their feet at this level.

One would assume that, Taunton being Taunton, Gloucestershire would play normally the contrasting styles of both Tom Smith and Graeme van Buuren. On the final afternoon at Sophia Gardens, van Buuren bowled one extraordinary delivery that turned so violently that it missed absolutely everything, running away for four byes and he also bowled several balls that evaded the edge, quite apart from the two, difficult chances that went down (a low catch at Short Forward Square Leg and a caught & bowled). If he can be as threatening against Somerset, he may yet give the Cidermen, missing both Bess and Leach, some surprises. However, Somerset have based their success this season on an extremely effective seam attack, to which the counterpoint is likely to be the higher pace of Matt Taylor and Josh Shaw more than the guile of Ryan Higgins, although David Payne’s height should pose some interesting questions for the batsmen.

Effectively, the Somerset game now becomes an elimination contest. Gloucestershire must win or their interest in the competition is over mathematically. Somerset will want to take two points more than Worcestershire to leave their fate as much as possible in their own hands in the last round when they play their rivals to top the Group at New Road. If they were to get those extra two points, they would just need a draw with the same points for each side to top the Group. A draw or defeat for Somerset would all but end their interest in the tournament, so they will want the 16 points for the win and the three bowling points: anything else would be a bonus to them, although they will trust their deep batting line-up to scratch out at least a couple of batting points. However, one suspects that both the Taunton and New Road pitches will be “sporty” and that batting points will be in short supply.

Knowing that Somerset will aim a fearsome pace barrage at them, Gloucestershire would be well advised to bat deep. Depending on the pitch, the last place in the XI may be between Tom Smith and Josh Shaw: Shaw if it is greenish, Tom Smith if it is the normal Taunton beach. Either way, the match will be a test of how far Gloucestershire have progressed over the last month.

 

Bob Willis Trophy Round 2: Gloucestershire v Warwickshire

 

Bob Willis Trophy, Round 2

Gloucestershire v Warwickshire

08/08/2020

 

Day 1

It has been another difficult day for the Shire. 191-8 after 90 overs tells its own story. A day of attritional struggle, with the promise that, unless the bowlers find much more success than they did against Worcestershire, this match will be another battle to avoid defeat.

Three changes for the Shire, with David Payne, their most dangerous bowler against Worcestershire, reporting ill and being replaced by George Scott, Miles Hammond being replaced by Ben Charlesworth and Tom Smith replacing Tom Price.

Despite Chris Dent failing for once – really the rest of the batting seems to think sometimes that they can leave it all to him – when you are 102-2 well into the afternoon session, having been put in to bat, you tend to think that life is pretty good. Fourteen balls later it is 103-5 and the Shire is in the Mire, big time. Oliver Hannon-Dalby is not the fastest bowler in County cricket and has a rather peculiar, round-arm action, but he produced a burst that was far too good for the Gloucestershire batting. It was a horrible reminder of the first innings of the Worcestershire game.

Especially alarming was to see Ryan Higgins fall to his fifth ball. Last season, Higgins and Dent carried the Gloucestershire side to Division 1. Both scored a lot of runs and Higgins was the go-to bowler; this season, Ryan Higgins looks out of sorts with both bat and ball. And, coming in just after Higgins, Jack Taylor is trying desperately hard and has almost cut out all scoring strokes in an attempt to get himself in and make a score but, just when you think that the hard work is done, he falls. This is symptomatic of the side’s efforts so far: the batting seems to lack collective confidence and the cutting criticism of the fans – as opposed to the supporters – is making things worse.

The long and short of it was that, just as earlier, when Charlesworth and Hankins seemed to be batting Gloucestershire into control, Roderick and Taylor seemed to have weathered the storm and be navigating Cabot’s ship into calmer waters when both fell in ten balls: 155-5… the Shire were beginning to fight back; 160-7 and 178-8… the Shire in the shite. There is a collective nervousness that turns one wicket into two and two into three and converts batsmen into strokelessness.

In theory, Gloucestershire have 30 overs more to bat. In practice, to bat out the first hour, passing the 200 and getting a single batting point will be the limit of any realistic aspiration. Tom Smith and Josh Shaw saw out the last eleven overs but, until the penultimate ball of the day, barely played a shot in anger.

 

Day 2

Glory be! The tail raised the 200 and obtained the batting point. First objective realised. Having seen the first over, in which Oliver Hannon-Dalby bent the ball so far after bouncing that there was no way that Tom Smith could touch them, you would not have bet on Shaw and Smith lasting long, but they extended their partnership to seventeen overs. However, when Hannon-Dalby finally adjusted his line a fraction it was always going to be a catchweight contest. The last two wickets fell in the space of three balls just a fraction short of half an hour into the day. Eight batsmen in double figures, just three past thirty and no one made a substantial score around which a total could be built. It was a scorecard that spoke of batsmen never really getting in.

However, this was a much better day for the Shire all round. With overcast skies for the first half of the day, prodigious swing on offer and a strong green tint in the centre of the pitch it looked like conditions that the Gloucestershire attack might exploit and, in the main they did. Ryan Higgins looked much more like the bowler of the last two seasons as his rhythm started to come back and he bowled some wonderful deliveries.

Two range-finders from Ryan Higgins to start the innings, one of which went for four leg byes, the third delivery was straight and into the pads. 5-1 became 15-2 as Matt Taylor claimed a second LBW, to add to the four in the Gloucestershire innings. For the best part of an hour it looked like the case of “the same old story” as Bell and Rhodes weathered the storm and started to look alarmingly comfortable but, with the last ball before Lunch, George Scott took his maiden wicket for the Shire and a mighty good one it was too, despatching a becalmed Ian Bell who aimed a huge drive and edged to George Hankins.

Meanwhile, Worcestershire were putting Glamorgan to the sword and, by Lunch, Somerset were already well on the way to a two-day win against Northants: maybe Gloucestershire’s defeat to the Pears was not quite as bad as it looked?

Again, Warwickshire re-built, seemingly serenely. On came Ben Charlesworth who, fourth ball, bowled Will Rhodes. The Shire hanging in there… just. It was like that all afternoon: Warwickshire took the lead and seemed ready to push on to a significant first innings advantage when a double-wicket maiden from Matt Taylor pegged them back once more.

Twenty ahead, with just two wickets left, the lead may stay small enough to turn this match into a virtual one-innings contest. The Gloucestershire bowlers stuck to their task and looked in much better form and spirits: it was good to see. With Warwickshire to bat last and some encouragement for the bowlers, there is plenty to play for. Somerset’s second, crushing victory suggests that they are likely to top the Group and the rest will be playing for pride but, for the Shire, this season is about preparation for 2021. Today, there were reasons to hope.

 

Day 3

The BBC Live Text made Day 2 unquestionably Warwickshire’s day. It did not look so clear to me. Gloucestershire fought their way back into the match tenaciously so, at best, you can say that Warwickshire had shaded the day. The long and short of it was to start Day 3 with the two sides pretty much level. If the last two wickets were to fall quickly, it was game on. If Warwickshire could stretch their lead past 40, it might be decisive.

What has happened is that the match ends its penultimate day with the clichéd “all four results possible”. It has been a day of punch and counter-punch, with the momentum swinging one way and the other.

Initial impressions were not great. Warwickshire were obviously looking at 250 and the second point and batted with no great alarms. Craig Miles, as the Gloucestershire faithful will remember, is no mean bat (5x50 and an average of 16.3, making him one of the better #10s in County cricket) and Tim Bresnan continued calmly until Ryan Higgins served up a tempter outside off, got some nice shape on it, Tim Bresnan flashed and guided it through to a jubilant Gareth Roderick. Ryan Higgins is back.

The new ball was taken and produced one of the more bizarre incidents that we will see this season. The first ball took Craig Miles on the pad. The batsmen ran the leg bye with Gareth Roderick chasing the ball back of Square Leg. His pads then came loose and, unable to re-fasten them, he decided to ‘keep against the New Ball, standing back, with no pads. Fortunately, two balls later, Higgins produced a lovely delivery on off stump, Hannon-Dalby edged to George Hankins at Second Slip and the bowler had 4-54. The lead was 37 – probably a few more than the Shire would have liked – but 223-6 two overs before the end of Day 2 had become 247ao. It could have been so much worse.

You wanted the Shire to get in the lead before losing a wicket. Double figure lead at Lunch… good. Losing three wickets before knocking off the deficit… bad. The match had taken another twist and lurched towards Warwickshire. The Shire could have been expected to fold tamely, but van Buuren and Higgins first blunted the attack and then started to counter-attack gloriously. A century partnership, fifties for both and then, with two overs to Tea, it all went wrong again as both fell to Henry Brooks. 118 the lead at Tea, but just five wickets left. The Shire in the mire.

Jack Taylor, the man who desperately needs a score, has battled almost two hours through to the Close. The lead is 160. The scoring almost non-existent (7 from the last 10 overs of the day), but there are four wickets left. Any chase over 200 will be tricky. 220 and Gloucestershire might even be favourites.

We are in for a tense last day.

Day 4

YES!!! Nerve-wracking, but a win. A good win even and 20 points.

But, this being the Shire, the supporters were put through the wringer first.

That there would a fourth innings chase today was obvious. What it would be, was not. Would Gloucestershire be bowled out quickly, setting only around 180? Would they bat on for an hour or an hour and a half and declare? Would Jack Taylor, 23* overnight, remember how to count beyond 26? (in the last 12 months, his highest scores have been 26*, 26 and 23 twice)

Either way, with Somerset on two wins out of two, a defeat would all but end the interest of both teams in the competition after just two rounds. Only a win would keep either side in with a realistic chance of topping the group and thus having a chance of progressing to the Final, although a draw might be enough for Warwickshire if they could win their last three games. Both sides wanted the win. Neither could afford a defeat.

The Gloucestershire approach was positive and busy. Jack Taylor passed 26 for the first time in more than a year, but then got out. Runs were taken where available. Quick singles were pushed. Twos were made into threes and the score mounted. Even though wickets fell, the lead passed 200, then 220. Finally, with Warks quite obviously trying to slow the game and avoid a declaration before Lunch (they bowled just 25 overs in a morning session that, admittedly, was a few minutes short of 2 hours), Matt Taylor came in as last man and biffed two boundaries before edging to slip. Two overs for the change of innings saved, but surely the Shire would have loved a couple of overs at the openers and a wicket before Lunch?

275ao the total.

239 to win from 65 overs the equation for Warwickshire.

3.68 runs per over required, well above anything that either side had achieved so far.

Draw the favourite?

Two overs passed quietly, then Ryan Higgins came up to bowl his second over. TRIPLE WICKET MAIDEN!!! Warwickshire 4-3. Oh my giddy aunt!

Rhodes and Lamb got the score up to 50 and were scoring a little too freely for comfort when Josh Shaw sent a ball like a cannon shell through Lamb and castled him: 50-4 and a little of the accumulated tension could bleed off again.

With Will Rhodes still there and the bowling looking less threatening by the minute, Tea was reached at 80-4. 159 required from 36 overs. Run Rate Required 4.42. Warwickshire right back in the match.

The game lurching back towards Warwickshire. Would there be a final twist in this convoluted game?

First ball after Tea. Higgins to Rhodes. Loosener down leg side. Feather to the ‘keeper. 80-5. Extraordinary. Probably his worst delivery of the day. Higgins has a touch of an Botham in his bowling.

A quiet few overs, with Warwickshire obviously no longer interested in the win and Ryan Higgins had to be rested for a final push. On comes Matt Taylor and, with the last two balls of his first over he removed Thompson and Brooks. 109-8. 23 overs to go. Surely the Shire would finish it off quickly now?

Craig Miles resisted 6 overs but, finally edged to the Captain at First Slip. Ryan Higgins had his first 6-for and beat his career best of 5-21 against Sussex in 2018. Middlesex, Middlesex! WHY did you let him go?

Almost 17 overs to go. Higgins and Taylor had to be rested. Hannon-Dalby has a First Class average of 6, surely Charlesworth and Shaw could bowl a straight delivery? They did not make the batsmen play enough and, most overs, Tim Bresnan was getting singles from the fourth or fifth ball.

Nine overs to go, Higgins was brought back and had a full over at Hannon-Dalby, who replied with three boundaries.

Six overs to go, Matt Taylor came back and bowled a maiden at Tim Bresnan. Ryan Higgins had Hannon-Dalby in his sights again. The tension was growing with every ball. It looked increasingly as if Warwickshire would produce an incredible escape.

Hannon-Dalby faces his 30^th delivery after almost an hour at the crease. Higgins bowls. Edge. Gareth Roderick, standing up, reacts and pouches it. The Shire have won with 29 balls to spare.

Oh my word! What a nerve-wrenching way to win. 7-42 for Ryan Higgins to add to his 4-54 in the first innings and 51 with the bat in the second. Best bowling figures in an innings. Best bowling figures in a match. So Gloucestershire do not have an X-factor player capable of changing a game??? If only he had more support.

 

What it means

Gloucestershire go third in the Central Group. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the Shire is still closer to the bottom of the table than it is to second place. To have a sniff of topping the Group, Gloucestershire would have to win and win well against Glamorgan and then, the game against Somerset would become a case of winner takes all ahead of the final round when Gloucestershire play Northamptonshire.  Anything other than a win against Glamorgan and Gloucestershire are out and these considerations become irrelevant.

However, with two of the last three games against the two weakest teams in the group, at least the Shire can dream on for another week.

Aftermath

The two teams with most points qualify for the Final. After two rounds it would be Derbyshire and Essex, with Yorkshire and Somerset, both just two points behind Essex, their nearest rivals. Gloucestershire are currently 11^th in the race, up from 17^th after the first game.

Due to a quirk in the rules, that allows for three groups, but no Semi-Finals, winning your group does not guarantee qualification for the final. Similarly, it is quite possible that, in the North Group, Yorkshire and Derbyshire could both end up with more points than any other team in the country, but then it would be the team with the next highest number of points that was also a group winner that would qualify. Confused? What happens if the other two group winners have the same number of points, wins and defeats (perfectly possible in this compressed format) I have no idea!

In all probability, the third round of games will eliminate mathematically from the competition Surrey, Durham, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as the loser of Glamorgan v Gloucestershire (both, if they draw and probably two or three more losing sides will fall too). A 20-point win against Glamorgan would put Gloucestershire on the fringes of the race to the Final, but still well behind the top four: let us be realistic about our chances even should we get a second win.

So, what did we learn about Gloucestershire in this win?

Well, one lesson is that they were able to win without big runs from Chris Dent. They have tended to rely on him far too much for their own good in recent seasons.

With the exception of Dent and Hankins, all the top eight made at least one 30+ contribution: a big improvement on the Worcestershire game. The winning target was based on getting runs right down the order.

The bad news was that, without Sid Payne, the change bowling looked decidedly thin. Far too much depended on Ryan Higgins and Matt Taylor. The two bowled 80.4 overs in the match, while the other four Gloucestershire bowlers sent down a combined 70 overs. With seven genuine, front-line bowling options, it should have been possible to share the load more. Every time that Chris Dent needed a breakthrough he went back to Higgins and Taylor. Every time that they were rested, the pressure was released. In such a compressed season, with little recovery time between matches, you cannot afford to bowl your key men into the ground.

Josh Shaw bowled one jaffa in the second innings and contained throughout the match, but never looked likely to run through Warwickshire. George Scott suggested that he is good enough to act as fourth or, more likely, fifth seamer and batting all-rounder, but a solid, threatening third seamer was required. Without one, Warwickshire almost escaped. At times you cried out for the nagging medium pace of Benny Howell (unlikely to be fit before the T20), or Kieron Noema-Barnett (now of fading memory, but increasingly legendary powers) with their ability to frustrate out batsmen with a mean spell of eight or ten overs of stranglehold.

In this game, Graeme van Buuren did not get a bowl. Tom Smith was preferred, but just 15 overs of spin were delivered in the whole match, which was hardly a fair trial for him. What little he bowled suggested that if you could combine Smith’s accuracy with van Buuren’s loop you would have a formidable bowler. Combine Smith’s flat darts with van Buuren’s accuracy… best not to think about that.

Gloucestershire are not “a mediocre Second Division side” as one fan (as opposed to supporter) commented as frustration mounted on the final afternoon. Warwickshire are a solid Division 1 outfit – spending 17 of the last 19 seasons in the top division – and came off clearly second best. After the Worcestershire game, Warwickshire, even weakened by Test calls, with an excellent top 4 and solid attack, were expected to ride roughshod over their country cousins, so Gloucestershire are clearly finding their feet. However, to satisfy the critics, this level of performance must be repeated against Glamorgan. More than anything, though, it will be Round 4, against Somerset, that shows how much progress has really been made.

The next round of matches starting on Saturday 15^th is:

·         Glamorgan v Gloucestershire

·         Warwickshire v Somerset

·         Northamptonshire v Worcestershire