Day 1: Gloucestershire 368 - 7 v Middlesex.
In this crunch game in division 2 between the sides placed second and third in the table it was Gloucestershire who finally wrestled control of this game as day 1 came to a close. Ian Cockbain made good the early season promise he has shown by going on to complete his maiden hundred just before the close of play. It was an intelligent innings, encompassing nearly two hundred balls, that came when Gloucestershire looked like throwing away the advantage handed to them by winning the toss on the batsman friendly Uxbridge track.
Middlesex will probably feel that they were slightly hard done by, especially as Cockbain was dropped on 8 by England captain Strauss (although it was difficult diving chance...and one conveniently not mentioned on the ECB highlights!) At 183 for 5 the game was very much in the balance. As has happened consistently this season, Gloucestershire responded excellently to the pressure of the key situation, and the partnership of 112 between Cockbain and Gidman saved the boys from a sub-par score. We've said this many times this season, but it's exactly the sort of situation that Gloucestershire sides of the last 10 years have been unable to fight their way out of. If this had been last years vintage then we'd be sat here talking about being bowled out for 250. It's full credit to the youngsters who have come into the team this year that we are able to talk about this new found battle hardened Gloucestershire.
The only slight disappointment from the day is that no one else managed to convert their good starts into hundreds. O'Mish, Dent, Taylor and Gidman all got in, looked good, and then got out. It was left to Cockbain, only playing because of a quad muscle injury to captain marvel, to show the more experienced players how to push on and make a telling contribution. He now has one more first class hundred than Chris Dent, which will hopefully be the kick up the backside Dent needs to make the conversion from pretty fifty to match winning hundreds.
It was good to see that Gloucestershire had also learnt their lesson from the last match against Surrey and gave the Sperm donor a chance slightly further up the order. His quickfire 25 really swung the momentum Gloucestershires way. If we get half an hour of 'the donor' this morning then Glos will post a very competitive score.
A pair of long-suffering Gloucestershire County Cricket club fans attempt to put the world (and the Glos administration) to rights. Themes include: Is one England ODI a year a good model for financial success and ground redevelopments, whether a batting average of 35 in Division 2 of the County Championship is acceptable and why Glos continue to be rubbish.
Let's not be too harsh on Chris Dent. It's great for Ian Cockbain to get his 1st hundred. He is however 24 and where was he when he was 20. Certainly not opening the batting in first class cricket like Chris Dent. Dent will have many hundreds by the time he is 24.
ReplyDeleteWow, we have a comment! I was so surprised I didn't know what to do for a minute there. We are only showing our disappointment with Dent because we can see he has a lot of potential. The trick is to make good on that potential. James Taylor might be a good model for Dent. A year or so older, has played 35 more 1st class matches in the same division,. However he averages 48 and has 8 FC hundreds. that's the kind of results The Jessop Tavern View wants to see.
ReplyDeleteYep, agree that Dent has bags of potential, but think the club need to help him to realise it much more than they are doing at the moment. Taylor has been a regular at Leics in all forms of cricket for 3 seasons and has been allowed to flourish and develop by batting consistently at 4 or 5. Dent has batted everywhere from 1 to 7 in 1st class cricket, never batted higher than 7 in 40 over cricket and despite having a good T20 record last year, seems to be nowhere near the T20 team this year. If Dent was given the same opportunities that Taylor has had at Leics, then he would have developed much more than he has. He needs to play in every game, no matter what the format. If things stand as they are, we won't see him again until the next 4 day game at Cheltenham at the end of July. They seem to have him bracketed as a 4 day player only. Play him in all the one day games as well and then see how he develops. I can only see him improving massively if this happens.
ReplyDeleteWe agree with you on the club's responsibility point. We've said in several posts that Dent should not be shuttled up and down the order in the CC. King John should settle on a position for Dent and then he should bat there consistently. Your point about one day cricket is also a good one. For a player with a good range of shot and the potential to score quickly, we are surprised he doesn't play more CB40 and T20. Still, it's never logical with Gloucestershire.
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