The wheels come off the Gloucestershire promotion bandwagon

Glamorgan 526 for 9 dec (Lloyd 119, Marsh 111) and 85 for 4 beat Gloucestershire 236 (de Lange 5-62) and 372 (Bracey 120*, Higgins 61, Worrall 50, Carey 4-105) by six wickets
Scorecard

The procession towards promotion is off. The champions elect have stumbled. The wheels are off the bandwagon before it even started rolling. Gloucestershire’s winning start to the season came unstuck in round 2 of the county championship as the lack of batting application and a re-injured Liam Norwell enabled Glamorgan to win despite some plucky fight from the Shire.

Being asked to bat first on a cloudless first day in Bristol should have offered Gloucestershire’s new-look top order the opportunity to shine. Instead a lack of application from the main men left the lower order with a repair job that proved too much to come back from. Captain Dent would have loved to have stamped his authority on this side with an early season big score, instead he again struggled here and has only posted double figures once in his four knocks this season. If not quite a concern just yet, but certainly something he will want to put right soon. We suspect that the experiment with Benny at the top of the order will flatter to deceive as long as it is persisted with. 

From 86 for 5 on the first morning, a final first innings total of 236 can be viewed as a small victory. Ryan Higgins enhanced his repuation with a decent knock of 43 to go with his five-for last week. The Gourmet Burger and overseas pro Dan Worrall also contributed late on to at least give the bowlers something to play with.

Day 2 thus represented an interesting opportunity for this bowler heavy Gloucestershire squad. Last week the theory of loading your squad with seamers proved dividends. This week less so. Not helped by Liam Norwell re-tweaking his hamstring after only 9 overs, the attack plugged away manfully, and never really lost complete control.

This said, Glamorgan did declare on 526 for 9, so nobody covered themselves in glory. We are not going to go so far as to call Shaun Marsh a ‘test quality’ batsman, but any many who can score a test hundred is certainly too good for division 2 county cricket. His 111 on debut enabled David Lloyd to pile on the misery with a hundred of his own. Declaring with a lead of 290 and 4 sessions to bat, the Shire’s under pressure batsmen would have it all to do.

And so it seemed. Day 3 ended with Glos reduced to 133 for 5, with only young James Bracey and Ryan Higgins providing any sort of resistance. Defeat seemed inevitable. Scoring at a brisk rate on the final morning Ryan Higgins backed up his first innings batting effort with a maiden first class fifty before falling for 61. Bracey was soon joined at the crease by Dan Worrall with Glos still trailing by 85 runs. Dan Worrall had a first class batting average of 9. No career fifties. Definitely time for Glamorgan to start the coach. Amazingly though Glos continued to fight. First Worrall added 50 runs in quick time. Then Matt Taylor also hung around to add 77 for the 9th wicket. Suddenly, Glos had not only made Glamorgan bat again, but they had a total that meant time was now an issue for Glamorgan. Sadly it was not to be. Glos were dismissed for 362. Glamorgan had 21 overs to score 83. A fair challenge 30 years ago. Not so much today. Glamorgan eventually winning by 6 wickets.

The stand-out performer for the Shire was James Bracey who has cemented himself into the number 4 position and confirmed the potential he showed at the end of last year. His old fashioned hundred took 274 balls and almost saved the game. A solitary contribution from someone else in the top 6 would have got Glos off the hook.

So a mixed bag for the Shire. The bowling went from fire and brimstone to pop-gun. This said, they did lose key strike man Liam Norwell and so battled on as a depleted unit. Why Norwell was rushed back into a bowling unit who had just decimated Kent the previous week now looks questionable. Such is the advantage of hindsight. The batting of Bracey makes it appear that the Shire may have unearthed a real talent. The rest of the top 6 looks in need of runs to build confidence.

Can anyone tell us what the Gourmet Burger is bringing to the side? He bats at 8 and despite us being a bowler light, he only bowls 7 overs that go at 6 an over? We presume that the old classic excuses that “He’s good in the dressing room” or “Looks good in the nets” are being trotted out. We just see little use for him when we are so light in batting. If you need extra overs from someone then surely Benny does this job? Will coach Dawson replace him with a batsman? Move Jack Taylor down to his more natural number 7 position. Higgins at 8. We still get 3 main seamers and Van Buuren’s spin. Solved. Easy.