The promotion bandwagon is up and running

Gloucestershire 110 (Roderick 51, Stevens 3-19) and 108 for 5 (Howell 52*) beat Kent 64 (Taylor 4-20, Miles 3-11) and 153 (Bell-Drummond 61, Higgins 5-22) by five wickets
Scorecard

Crucial fifties from former skipper Gareth Roderick and newly-minted opener Benny Howell, saw Gloucestershire defeat Kent in a low-scoring game completed in under three days, despite the loss of day 1 to a wet outfield following heavy rain.

This was a wild game, with many crazy statistics, including Glos winning despite not scoring over 110 in either innings, only three individual scores above 50 and 17(!) LBWs from 35 wickets, all in under 3 full days of cricket.

Day 1 at Canterbury was lost to a wet outfield and Gloucestershire were always likely to bowl first, given the overhead conditions. A four man attack without Liam Norwell, who was rested after a pre-season injury, meant debutant Ryan Higgins provided seam backup to Worrall, Miles and Matt Taylor. We also had Benny and Gourmet-Burger in reserve, although as events transpired they were in selected the team as batsmen only.

Glos ripped into Kent in favourable bowling conditions on Day 2, reducing them to 29-6 on the way to 64 all out. Matt Taylor showed why the shire's seam attack is potentially one of the division's best, removing Bell-Drummond, captain Joe Denly, the dangerous Stevens and former Jessop Tavern favourite Will Gidman on the way to 4-20, He was ably supported by Miles with 3-11 as Kent were skittled in 18.5 overs.

By the close of play, the match was halfway done, with Glos handily ahead at 110-8. Despite numerous low scores, largely brought about by the seamer-friendly conditions, Glos managed to close with a lead of 46, thanks to a gritty half century from keeper Roderick. This was the knock of the match, a fact acknowledged by coach Richard Dawson who rated it worth a hundred in any other game.

Day Three began in familiar fashion, with Glos dismissed in the first over of the day without adding to our overnight total. This left u with some work to do, as batting conditions improved somewhat on Sunday morning and the dangerous Bell-Drummond got going. He struck 10 fours and a six in a rapid 61 as Kent moved ahead of Glos for the loss of Dixon. Joe Denly arrived and looked to have been caught for a golden by KNB, but refused to walk and was reprieved by the umpire. The crucial moment of the innings was yet another LBW, as Higgins snared a well-set Bell-Drummond bang in front with the score on 75 and the lead just 29.

Kent slipped to 89-5, before recovering at the hands of Gidman, who put on 43 with Rouse before nicking off to Roderick for Miles' solitary wicket of the innings. Higgins showed real potential with the ball, nipping it around at a handy pace to take his maiden first class five-fer as Kent were dismissed for 153.

This left us 108 to win and with conditions still tricky, new skipper Dent was castled by a jaffa from Kiwi Matt Henry bringing Roderick in again with over a hundred still required. The two saw us through to an early close due to bad light at 61-1.

This left a nervous Monday morning for those sitting in the office listening on the BBC. We questioned Benny's move to opener in our season preview last week, but were delighted to see the Frenchman score a crucial fifty of his own as Glos won by 5 wickets. Benny's positivity, hitting 9 boundaries and facing only 90 balls, was a welcome counterpoint to the uncertainty shown at the other end, with 4 wickets falling in knocking off the 47 runs needed. Jack Taylor's second poor dismissal of the match, leaving a straight one from the wily Stevens to be plumb LBW was a bit concerning, given that the vice-captain's runs will be needed given he's set to bat at in the top 6 this season.

So, what does this all mean, ahead of tomorrow's home opener versus Glamorgan? Clearly the boys have a quality seam bowling attack, as evidenced by bowling Kent out cheaply twice, despite being without last year's leading wicket-taker Liam Norwell. Taylor bowled well on D1 and Worrall is clearly going to be a factor in Division 2, having taken 4-55 on his Shire debut. Higgins was a pleasant surprise and if he can function as a 4th or 5th seamer alongside the established attack then we could have a really handy attack this year.

The batting remains a bit of a concern. We said on Twitter that a lot of the dismissals in the first innings were down to playing across the line or missing straight deliveries. We may have been a bit harsh, as listening to 'Pasty' during his BBC commentary stint, he claimed most of the LBWs were due to late movement rather than poor choice of shot, aside from Roderick who admitted he made a mistake in the first innings. We'll give the boys the benefit of the doubt for this one, but with an equally handy Glamorgan pace attack rolling into Bristol tomorrow, we will need to see improvements if the Shire are to continue their momentum into the first home game of the year.

Still, a first win in the opening game of the season since the heady days of 2011 is not to be sniffed at. Let's hope that another good performance can help the Jessop Tavern View recapture some of the heady optimism of 2011, our first season blogging here. We can't promise you 25 posts in April like our first year of blogging, but more wins like this will certainly inspire us to fire up the laptops more often!