Put up or shut up for Glos in the Royal London One Day Cup

For many years rugby's Heineken Cup stood as the pinnacle of how a successful sporting competition should be run. High quality teams with small groups and a tough qualifying requirement of finishing in the top two to progress to the next round meant that the intensity of the competition existed right from the start. Compare that to the nauseum of football's Champion League group stage and you know what we mean. Right from the start of a competition winning should be imperative. Bizarrely, given their love of 100 game seasons in othe sports, the American NFL has this balance right as well. 

Enter the Royal London One Day Cup. A competition that, this year, potentially feels like it has found its feet. Both Glos and Hampshire begin today knowing that they realistically have to win to stay in contention. Both teams have one win from their three matches. Lose today and one them will be staring down the barrel of an early exit. However, the structure of the competition does now mean that their would still be the possibility of Michael Klinger making some sort of Aaron Rodgers-style 'run the table' quip and potentially a third place finish could happen. To us, this makes for a good competition. The fact it is being played out in chunks also makes it easily engaged with. The fact no one else is watching is irrelevant! We're enjoying it, and as people who write a blog merely to entertain ourselves, we've never be much interested in whether other people are also on board.

Glos find themselves in this position after a disappointing defeat to Essex at the end of last week. We say disappointing mainly because if Alastair Cook is your main one day tormentor then you feel like you could have done better. Cook's hundred proved the difference between the two sides. Cook made a hundred. Phil Mustard could only make 90, and Ian Cockbain fell for 79. If either of those two had been able to reach three figures then the Shire might have squeezed home.

The other curiosity from the Essex match was the sudden re-emergence of the Gourmet Burger. Having not featured in any of the previous matches this season, Gourmet Burger was drafted in to replace the unwell Graeme Van Buuren. Fair enough. Last minute illnesses mean that it isn't always possible to have like for like replacements. What seemed fairly inexplicable was that Glos seemed to think they had the second coming of Gary Sobers stepping into their team. Noema-Barnett was brought on first change, given two overs, was butchered round the ground and taken off. He was then thrown in to bat at number 5. Ahead of Benny and Jack Taylor, who have both been in the runs recently. He made an 8 ball duck. Hopefully a lesson has been learnt.

Draw-ja vu all over again

Worcestershire 411 (Clarke 135, Moeen 74, Cox 69) and 210 for 4 (Moeen 136*) drew with Gloucestershire 380 (Marshall 135, Noema-Barnett 84, Dent 59, Shantry 4-89) and 382 for 7 dec (Dent 138*, Taylor 105, Cockbain 67)
Scorecard

After a heavy opening round defeat to Essex, Glos have rebounded nicely with two fairly healthy draws against Derbyshire and Worcestershire than demonstrates that whilst the squad might be light on top class match winners, it doesn't lack for heart.


At the start of the season we called for Chris Dent to make this the season that he starts to stamp his class across Division 2. So far he has 402 runs from 5 innings at an average of 102. Minus Michael Klinger, this is exactly what Glos needed from their most talented batsman. Gloucestershire supporters have glimpsed Dent's considerable talents a few times over the last few years without him ever going on to have a truly dominant year. Dent should be setting his sights on 5 or 6 hundreds and heading towards 1400 runs in the championship.

What else to say about this game? Lots of runs were scored on another flattish deck. O'Mish scored an invaluable hundred when Glos were in trouble in the first innings. Gourmet-Burger belied our frequent criticism to support him in an important partnership, before promptly throwing it away with a slog in the first over on Day 2. Jack Taylor also impressed with the bat in hitting a violent 105 in the third innings. He took a heavy toll on their spinners, especially Moeen. Ali then struck a typically attractive unbeaten hundred of his own on Day 4, including some meaty 'revenge' blows off Taylor.

The game was drawn and we moved on to Canterbury to face Kent. A good start from the boys although we're clearly going to struggle to bowl sides out until Miles returns.

Day 1 highlights:

Day 2 highlights:

Day 3 highlights:

Day 4 highlights

Lack of bowling depth starting to look like a real issue

Gloucestershire v Derbyshire, County Championship Div 2.
Derbyshire won the toss and elected to bat.
Day 1: Derbyshire 242 - 3. (Norwell 2 for 55)

The World T20 excitement feels a long time ago after a fairly turgid day of attritional cricket at the Brightside. Gloucestershire's inexperienced attack bowled tightly. Derbyshire's batsmen, in their first knock of the season, weren't to be lulled in and quickly realised that tight line and length is less of a threat without wicket-taking deliveries.

Liam Norwell, continuing to lead the attack, was the most threatening, and ended the day with two hard-earned wickets.  Payne, Shaw, Gourmet-Burger and Taylor all kept control of things and the plan will be that early wickets on day 2 will allow Glos to restrict Derbyshire to around 300. Having managed a similar escape against Essex this isn't completely beyond the realms of possibility.

The Shire's squad continues to be a point of major concern. Benny batting at 6 always makes the batting look a shade too thin, particularly when Klinger isn't one of the men ahead of him. The bowling also looks strained with young Josh Shaw as first change with only Benny, Gourmet and Jack Taylor to pick up the strain. Any team turning up to play a Gloucestershire side containing both Benny and Gourmet-Burger must surely be licking its lips.

Benny made a very definite step forward last season and we continue to enjoy his angry Twitter posts aimed at both us and various other people who dare to voice an opinion questioning the club's decisions. However, Gourmet-Burger is still to show us anything that suggests he isn't doing anything other than filling Mark Hardinges' much missed demonstrations of what village cricketers look like when placed into first class matches.

Glos still have Craig Miles to walk back into the side when fully fit. Beyond that there is very little else and in essence Glos have entered the 2016 season with a bowling attack that has to play every game. Over the last 2 years this bowling squad has lost Will Gidman and James Fuller without seemingly replacing them. Admittedly the club will argue that Norwell, Payne and Miles are now able to take on the extra responsibility.

But this isn't the concern. We like all 3 of these guys and think they all can do a very good job in division 2. The concern is that there is no one backing them up and thus we are reliant on them staying fully fit. And not of them have good fitness records. Maybe Josh Shaw will have a real breakthrough season whilst on loan with us. Maybe Gourmet will take 30 plus wickets. Maybe. We will see. It would be handy if they started tomorrow.

Day 1 highlights

Weather saves Glos from second Surrey slaughter

Gloucestershire 233 (8 points) drew with Surrey 349 - 6 (11 points)

Gloucestershire remained unbeaten in the Championship since the two wins during the Cheltenham Festival, after a game ruined by the rain. The scorecard doesn't tell the true story though, as the match one in which Surrey would likely have pressed for a victory (and promotion) after dominating proceedings on Day 2 of the match before the weather intervened.

Gloucestershire batted first after being put in by Gareth Batty and it didn't go well as the talented Curran brothers reduced us to 63-4 inside the first hour, with Tavare, Dent, O'Mish and Howell all departing cheaply. The 'shire were indebted to Gareth Roderick's 71 for getting us on the way to an even passable first innings total, as he punished some wayward bowling, striking 12 fours on his way to a 100 ball 71. However, having seen a patient Roderick and Gourmet-Burger partnership take us 103-4 at the interval, wickets continued to fall after lunch.

First to go was the Kiwi, for yet another low score (his highest championship knock of the season is just 61) and Jack Taylor and Roderick soon followed. This brought together James Fuller and Tom Smith and the Kiwi decided he wasn't going to die wondering- he struck several crisp boundaries in a 40 ball 48, before he was bowled by Tom Curran who completed a 5-fer. Smith then put on a second fifty partnership with David Payne, taking us to 203-8 at tea and beyond, before Payne was caught off Curran on his way to 6-61. Norwell was soon bowled by Batty and we were all out for a below-par 233. Surrey reached 74-2 at the close, with Norwell strangling Arun Harinath down the leg side and Rory Burns caught by Fuller off Benny the Frenchman.

Day 2 was very much a batting day, with one of Surrey's many wicket keepers, Ben Foakes to the fore. The wasn't an awful lot to write home about from a 'shire perspective, as good batting conditions saw Foakes reach a career-best 140*, ably supported by 17 year old Sam Curran who hit 49 and Jason Roy who chipped in with 39. Glos used seven bowlers in the day and it said a lot that economical medium pace trundler Gourmet-Burger was the pick of the attack with two wickets.

All this put Surrey in a very strong position at the close, with power to add to a handy on Day 3 and a high-quality bowling attack raring to have a crack at our flaky batting lineup. Thankfully this became academic when it subsequently poured down with rain for the next two days, meaning no further play was possible after Day 2. The result was we escaped with a handy draw, not bad considering the stuffing we received from Surrey at the Oval back in late June.

Video highlights below:

Day 1

Day 2

Miles eases his way into a bucket load of wickets

Day 1: Northants 333 all out v Glos 18 - 0

On the opening day of the 2015 county championship, new Gloucestershire captain Geraint Jones decided to get an early look at exactly what sort of bowling attack he had to work with over the coming months. At the end of the day, he probably had a fair idea.

Craig Miles tore up the Northants batting for career best figures of 6-63, whilst the rest ran in manfully without quite so much penetration. If Miles can stay fit this summer then he will end the season with a bucket load of wickets now that Will Gidman is no longer around. Miles has been a top prospect for the last couple of years, yet injury problems have stopped him being inevitably snaffled by Somerset, meaning Glos fans should get at least one more good year from the young seamer. In order to get out of division 2 it is all about taking 20 wickets and the big question Glos will face this year is whether Miles can stay fit, and whether others can support him and take their share of wickets. Can '38' Fuller take 30 odd wickets? Can Norwell? Maybe Kieran Gourmet-Burger will be that man after taking 3 for 48 on a very handy debut.

It was also encouraging to see another perennial Gloucestershire injury concern, Gareth Roderick, take a club record-equalling 6 catches in an innings whilst not managing to break any fingers! A very encouraging start for another key Glos player this year.

Having reduced Northants to 162 for 6 you would imagine Gloucestershire's new hierarchy would be slightly disappointed at the end of day 1. However, bat well over the next couple of days, and Glos can set themselves up for a solid start to the season. How the new-look Glos batting line-up fares will be interesting to see. Is James Fuller really good enough to bat at 8?

On a side note. The Jessop Tavern View definitely raised a smile at seeing old boy Alex Gidman trapped lbw to Tim Bresnan for not many on his Worcestershire debut. Fans at New Road should get themselves ready for a lot more of watching that leaden front foot planted and the ball cannoning into it!

For video highlights from Day 1, click the link below:

http://www.ecbtv.co.uk/video/i/4634569/title/northamptonshire-v-gloucestershire-day-1

Update- Northants have finally put the Day 1 highlights up on YouTube: