Friday 29 April 2011

A season's worth of wins in just three games. Surely promotion beckons?

Gloucestershire 206 and 292 beat Kent 208 and 245 by 45 runs
 
Gloucestershire wrapped up a good win over Kent today and now find themselves second in the table behind leaders Middlesex. A target of 291 was always going to be a stiff ask for a Kent side with two injured players, although both Robbie Joseph and Joe Denly did eventually bat. You know it is your day when the gentle medium pace of Hamish Marshall nets you two wickets for one run in his first two overs! His bowling was described by Alex Gidman as 'very handy when the ball is swinging' and it certainly never hurts when your opening batsman ambles up and removes two of their middle order for bugger all.

The only scare came when Azhar Mahmood put on 70 with Simon Cook, but Gidders the younger put an end to that partnership and cleaning up the rest of the tail to finish with 3-37. Jon Batty finished with 7 more catches to take his tally for the season to 17 in just 3 games. He might not be able to bat for toffee at the moment, but he certainly hoovers up the nicks, even without last year's seam attack to generate them.

This was a good away win for the boys. Even though Kent's batting was pretty woeful and they suffered from the injury to key batsman Denly, Gidman should take credit for the way we performed after getting a stuffing from Glamorgan in the previous Championship match. The bowling attack performed well throughout, with Saxelby taking wickets despite being expensive and David Payne adding some control to his wickets. Will Gidman managed to break some key partnerships and also showed some fight with the bat. At the moment he looks a good acquisition.

More good news come in the form of Kiwi starlet Kane Williamson, who finally arrived from New Zealand today after his visa processing saga came to a happy end. After his introductory shifts in the club gym tomorrow and Sunday, he is expected to make his debut against the Unicorns on Monday. We're looking forward to seeing how he gets on.

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