Glos' T20 bandwagon stalls, then fires again

Glamorgan 172 for 4 (Ingram 64*, Donald 48*) beat Gloucestershire 168 for 8 (Noema-Barnett 37, Cockbain 37) by six wickets
Scorecard

The Jessop Tavern View wrote a couple of weeks back that Gloucestershire were in danger of becoming a very good side. We were basing this on some handy Championship form, plus 3 good T20 performances (2 away wins and an unlucky home D/L loss) in our first three games.

This was of course before our Royal London One Day Cup defence got underway with three losses in a row. We didn't play well in any of these matches and, in particular, we didn't bat well enough to set or chase challenging targets.

This poor batting again proved to be an issue in last Friday's match against Glamorgan at Bristol. We batted first and managed to turn a poor start (30-3 after losing Klinger, O'Mish and Dent early) into a reasonable 168 for 8, with Gourmet-Burger and Cockbain top scoring with 37 apiece.

The total appeared under par given the short boundaries at the Brightside and this proved to be the case as Colin Ingram took full advantage in striking a match-winning 64. The South African launched several blows over the short leg side boundary off Norwell and Gourmet-Burger, plus consecutive maximums off Dent (one a a switch hit) when he was forced to complete Andrew Tye's over, following two full toss no-balls which led to his removal from the Glos attack.

Aneurin Donald provided able support with an unbeaten 48 as Glamorgan cruised to victory with 7 balls remaining. Losing both of our opening two home games has certainly put pressure on the boys to deliver the against Essex the following Thursday.

Gloucestershire 154 for 2 (Klinger 78, Marshall 42) beat Essex 153 for 8 (Westley 45) by eight wickets 
Scorecard

Gloucestershire had never previously won a T20 game at Chelmsford, but the presence of the Sky cameras last night was a good omen as the boys seem to enjoy the spotlight and the chance to showcase their skills to a wider audience than those who are prepared to scour YouTube for the videos we try to post below.

Last night was no exception as an excellent all-round performance from the boys saw us secure a third away T20 win of the campaign. Michael Klinger again looked in magnificent nick with the bat in making 78 from 49 balls in an opening stand of 126 with O'Mish, Maxy took a particular liking to Essex's band of right arm seamers, striking 4 sixes including two glorious straight drives off Masters and youngster Matt Quinn which had Atherton and Butcher purring in the sky commentary box.

Klinger stands noticeably still at the crease and his wide range of shot allows him to score easily off the majority of bowlers in all formats. He plays very straight and his striking in the arc between cover and wide mid-on is impressively clean. Andrew Tye joined commentary for a stint and expressed amazement that he had yet to play international cricket given his form over a prolonged period of time. The great man has now scored 308 T20 runs versus Essex for once dismissed.

O'Mish provided able support despite much less strike- 42 from 35 was all that was needed given the dominance of the man at the other end. Despite both falling in the space of an over, there wasn't much left to do and Cockbain and Dent steered us to a comprehensive victory.

The Glos bowling and fielding effort was also notable for its excellent use of slower balls and cutters- something the Essex bowlers clearly failed to pick up on as they mainly bowled line and length. Chris Dent swooped from mid off to run out the dangerous Ryan ten Doeschate and Matt Taylor, Benny Howell and Gourmet-Burger all bowled tidily. Andrew Tye was more expensive, but he looked a handful, especially the lovely slower ball which cleaned up the big-hitting Ashar Zaidi at a crucial time.

This was a clinical performance and stand us in good stead for the cider derby down at Bristol later. Let's hope the late finish and later return to Bristol hasn't taken too much out of the boys as we prepare to meet a Gayle-force tonight.

Video highlights below:

Glamorgan

Essex

Rain dampens Glos bowlers fire

Gloucestershire (231) drew with Glamorgan (145 and 146 - 9)

Glos 9 points. Glamorgan 8 points.

Gloucestershire rather surprisingly decided to select the same toothless bowling attack that Hampshire had so easily swatted aside the week before and the faith of King John was duly rewarded with a fine effort from the bowling unit. Sadly it was all in vain, as the rain set in and took so much time out of the game that Glos couldn't quite force a richly deserved victory.

Pleasingly, all the bowlers contributed. James Fuller making early breakthroughs and Will Gidman doing what Will Gidman does. The Jessop Tavern continues to be somewhat amazed at the wonderful consistency of the 'other' Gidman brother since he arrived in the Shire. We sort of keep expecting him to be found out as being nothing more than a division two trundler. Fortunately, division two are never likely to. It would be interesting to see how Gidman would get on at a higher level. Would his game have another gear, or would he go Gemaal Hussain? David Payne also responded well to a disappointing opening game of the season and only the weather could deny him a hat trick on day 1.

In the batting department, Will Tavare proved his hundred against Hampshire was no fluke with another handy contribution. Dent and O'Mish also chipped in on a damp pitch hardly conducive to free flowing stroke play. Gloucestershire fans are well versed in watching wiley Glamorgan veteran spinners running through us, and even though Crofty, and his armoury of stop-deliveries and balls delivered from behind the umpire, has now gone Dean Cosker is still plodding away and his 5 for 46 kept Glamorgan in it.

Despite the rain, Glos will be disappointed not to have walked away with the victory. Having reduced Glamorgan to 72 for 9 in their first innings the 73 runs that were added for the final wicket ended up being crucial. Still, onwards and upwards. It was good to see the bowlers respond well to a worrying opening match performance. Next up, the reinvigorated England captain and former Gloucestershire great, Ravi Bopara.

Musings on what could have been

Days 2 and 3: Glos 409 for 5 dec v Essex 177 for 3.






The weather and a stubborn knock from Tom Westley have surely put pay to any thoughts Gloucestershire had of starting the 2013 campaign with a win. Despite James Fuller's early salvo of 2 for 22 from 4 overs at the end of day 2, play only resumed again at 3pm on day 3 and Tom Westley and former Gloucestershire star (!) Ravi Bopara shut the door firmly in Gloucester's face with a stand off 116.

James Fuller's efforts on the evening of day two confirmed last seasons impression that Fuller is a real wicket taking bowler. Without having seen too much of him it is difficult to know whether this wicket taking ability comes from genuinely good deliveries, or whether he sprays the ball around so much that batsmen are drawn into daft dismissals. We've all played against these sort of guys. They run in at a hundred miles and hour and terrify the life out of you, not because of their quality, but because you know that they have absolutely no control over where the ball is going. The ball is as likely to be fired directly at your head, as fired 6 feet down the leg side, or ripping out your off stump. We are not suggesting Fuller doesn't have quality, but his previous misnomers for beamers suggests he has something of the maverick operator about him.

Rolling back to day two, O'Mish and Housego both moved their scores to 149 and 150 respectively, and Benny Howell gave the scoreboard the acceleration it needed in posting a declaration. Howell is an interesting selection. Last season he appeared far more comfortable in the shorter form of the game, and his innings here seems to confirm this. When he walks in with the score on 351, as he did here, you feel he is more suited than facing down a crisis. Still, a little bit of competition between him and Ian Cockbain can only be a good thing.

Listening to BBC Essex's coverage on day one the point was made about the how much worth there is in playing for a draw in division 2. With no relegation and with only three points differential between a loss and a draw, how much do you really gain from drawing a match. Contriving results is hardly a new thing in county cricket, but usually these things happen towards the end of the season. Looking at the weather forecast for the final day it seems unlikely that there will be enough play to manufacture a result anyway, but it would interesting to see how each team view the possibility of creating a result so early in the season.

Finally, as always Alex Winter's match reports for this game have been excellent, and well worth checking out. Today he makes the point about the high turn over of youngsters that Essex have had to endure over the last few seasons. Varun Chopra, Chris Wright, Tony Palladino and Adam Wheater have all left over the past few years. That's quite a useful group of players. Of course this is always likely to be a problem for counties who, like Essex have struggled, during this time period. However, it did make us think again about the Gloucestershire youngsters and how much interest their has been in them over the winter. Did any of the bigger counties enquiry about Chris Dent or James Fuller, and if not, what does this say about the quality of these guys? It's a theme that the Jessop Tavern View has touched upon before. Time will tell exactly how good these kids can become. After such a positive start to the season, our glass is a lot closer to half full.

And so, the end is near....

The end of the season cannot come quickly enough for Gloucestershire and, much like the boys, the Jessop Tavern View is giving up on this season too.

It's a shame, because there have been positives from this season. Sadly the t20 break hasn't been kind to Gloucestershire's championship campaign. Kaiser Tom had clearly told the boys how important the money generated from one day cricket was and subsequently all the eggs were put in one basket. We kind of understand this, but tragically the t20 campaign was blown out of the water by Scott Styris and Lancashire comfortably put to bed the CB40 efforts.

It's difficult to be too critical. The God awful weather this summer has made for a disjointed cricket season. Gloucestershire continue to talk about youth, yet clearly the faith is starting to wain. Coughtrie seems to have been given up on. Ed Young has been consigned to being a one day player. Chris Dent has suffered another season ruined by injury. None of the young bowlers have made a massive step up. Things have got to such a point that today's match against Yorkshire commenced with Jon Batty and Anthony Ireland in the side! Yikes.

What are we achieving by playing Batty. Surely he will be gone next year, so why play him now?

Why has Anthony Ireland been resigned? Apparently he offers experienced cover for Ian Saxelby's injury, but why? This season has gone. There is nothing left to play for. Surely there was a youngster who could have been thrown in?

What we object to most with the Batty and Ireland inclusions is that it shows a lack of focused structure in Gloucestershire's cricket. Whatever the plan was at the start of the season has now gone out of the window and anyone will do. The Jessop Tavern View doesn't mind us losing as long as the losses come with a sense of purpose.

As we said, the end of the season cannot come quickly enough. What happens at Gloucestershire over the winter could prove to be very interesting. After two years of 'project youth' the faith seems to be fading that the kids perhaps have the necessary quality. Who has Jackson Thompson's number?

Oh, at the end of the first day against Yorkshire, Glos were rolled for 215, although after being 9 for 4 at one point the tail gets a pat on the back. Yorkshire were 61 for 2. Captain Gidders misses the game for 'personal reasons'. Who said Ravi Bopara wouldn't have an effect on the Glos dressing room!

Why every county could use a Ravi Bopara

Essex 225 for 2 (Bopara 120*) beat Gloucestershire 224 for 5 (Williamson 77) by eight wickets


The Jessop Tavern View is quite envious of Essex. Not the fake tans, white stilettos and souped up Escorts, but the presence in their side of one Ravi Bopara. Let's get one thing straight, Bopara is a good player. He may not be quite at international class, but at county level he's top drawer. He's particularly good at limited overs cricket, scoring an unbeaten 201 from 138 balls back in 2008 against Leicestershire. That's Ali Brown territory. When you couple this talent with the fact that he's constantly champing at the bit to prove to the England selectors that he's worth a recall, you're left with a man who can dismantle county attacks with ease. Essex on really lose him for occasional Lions games, ODIs  (if he's selected) and comedy injuries sustained while desperately trying to prove his worth to Andy Flower.


This is exactly what happened to Glos on Monday, as Bopara returned from 3 weeks out to strike an unbeaten 120 from 100 balls as Essex cruised to an 8 wicket victory with more than 3 overs to spare. Glos' total of 224 always looked a little light against a powerful Essex batting line-up, containing the likes of Bopara, Owais Shah, Ryan ten Doeschate and Graham Napier, and this proved the case as a partnership of 185 between Ravi and Tom Westley won the game comfortably. The bowling attack predictably went around the park, with only Jack Taylor going for under 5 an over.


The problem for Glos started with a below par effort with the bat. Will Gidman, not exactly known as a dasher, opened the innings and departed for a 5 ball duck, then we struggled, only reaching the 100 from 27 overs. Luckily Kane Williamson and Ian Cockbain managed to up the temp and put on 85 in 11 overs, before the gym instructor was out for 77. Jack Taylor threw the bat to good effect in scoring 22 from 12 deliveries and Cockbain ended on 52 from 44 balls. Cockbain looks handy in one day cricket and is actually an opening bat by trade. Perhaps we could look to make more of him as the season progresses? With only 4 points from 4 completed matches so far, we are going to need to score more runs to give the boys something to defend, if we are to progress to the semi finals.


On a separate note, whatever happened to Kevin O'Brien? Is he still on the books? Surely his buccaneering style is tailor-made for such matches? Any updates would be more than the official site provide!

Dent fights for a credible draw

Day 4: Gloucestershire 255 and 310 - 9 dec V Essex 321.

Gloucestershire continue to show considerable signs of improvement over the horror show of recent years with a gutsy draw against Essex. Don't get us wrong. This doesn't make us a good side. But it certainly beats watching us lose from similar positions to the one we found ourselves in yesterday.

In typical Gloucestershire fashion batsmen got themselves in, played a few shots, and then decided that a score in the 30's would keep them with a contract next season and so decided to get themselves out. Williamson, the kid and the brothers Gidman all got in, and all got out when set. At 156 for 6 just after lunch the scene seemed set for an Essex victory.

Step forward Chris Dent. Making his return from injury and finding himself bizarrely shunted down to number 7 the young left hander got his head down and built sensible partnerships, firstly with Ed Young and then with the wily Sperm donor. The Jessop Tavern View is actually quite pleased with this performance which, whilst hardly great, certainly demonstrates again that this team has some fight in it. Admittedly we were significantly helped by Essex's contractual obligation to Ravi Bopara to let him bowl constantly, and to Ryan ten Doeschate's decision to use his second over as a shop window to sell himself as a handy pitcher in the MLB. The boys on radio Essex were bemoaning the lack of overs given to peg-leg Shah. This said a lot about Essex's lack of bowling talent. It also says a lot about the standard of bowling in division 2 that the Sperm donor is able to average 31, with 3 50's. The Jessop Tavern View once had the privilege of bowling to a young Jon Lewis at the Cheltenham festival during a rain break. Walking around the boundary Lewis obviously fancied getting his eye in against some kids. Not being accustomed to the particular requirements of batting when an entire industrial-sized wheel bin are your wickets, he was cleaned up first ball. My point is that he's not much of a batsman.

So Gloucestershire now head into the T20 break in a respectable 5th in the county championship table. Certainly better than most people expected. Let's all now sit back and enjoy a bit of Murali at the circus.

Day 3: Glos face a battle to stave off disappointing defeat.

 Day3: Gloucestershire 255 and 37 - 2 v Essex 321.

Whilst the other half of the Jessop Tavern View salivates about beer and upcoming T20 matches this half is keeping a nervy eye on the proper cricket at Nevil Road. After losing 2 late wickets, Gloucestershire will face a nervous final day as they try to salvage a draw from a game that seemed to be meandering slowly to a convenient draw for both sides.

The less optimistic, and more realistic Glos fans might won't to check here for tomorrow's weather forecast. Not encouraging.

The bowlers actually did a pretty decent job today. At 108 for 1 and with peg leg Shah and bowling allrounder Bopara still to bat things looked pretty good for Essex. Yet an excellent spell from the Gidman brothers then opened the door for the Sperm donor and only ten Doeschate and Adam Wheater helped Essex to a first innings lead of 66. In hindsight the boys might have been better off trying a little less hard and allowing Essex to bat out the day, claim maximum batting points by lunchtime tomorrow, and then only have a session and a half to bat out.

As it is both Coughtrie and Cockbain fell cheaply and it will take some good batting tomorrow to save this game from what would be a very disappointing defeat. The talent is there to save us, and so far this season Glos have usually come to the party when they have been asked. Yet the memories of the last x number of years of awful cricket mean that we're not confident.

We are still not sure why Coughtrie was opening instead of Chris Dent. We understand he has been doing so whilst Dent was out injured, but, considering that he has also been handed the gloves for the first time in this game, surely it made more sense for him to bat at 7. His limited stroke play also seem more suited to a lower order position which would allow him to hold up an end whilst people like the Sperm donor and Saxelby have a biff around him.

Lets hope the boys can do enough to secure the draw. It would be disheartening to throw away a good start to the 4 day season by sliding down the table with defeat here. Particularly just before the T20. Fingers crossed that Essex continue to feel obliged to give the ball to Bopara in the hope that he can convince the England selectors that his wretched first innings duck can be glossed over with a first class bowling average of 43.

Preview: Gloucestershire v Essex. County championship.

Gloucestershire v Essex @ Bristol. May 29-June 1.

Since the Jessop Tavern View is playing the dutiful boyfriend this weekend by putting himself out on wedding duty, our big match preview of the upcoming championship match comes early enough for everyone to fully digest our words of wisdom.

Gloucestershire currently lie 4th in division 2, with Essex in 5th place. As this is the last round of championship matches before mid June this match will probably go a long way to decided Gloucestershire's fate this season. Win it, and we are right in the thick of the promotion battle. Lose, and the Jessop Tavern View will start looking up when the football season starts again.

It has become our favourite pastime recently to judge a side based on the ratio of youngsters to journeymen so we had better have a look at how Essex fare. Playing in their current match with Middlesex are 3 genuine youngsters in batsmen Jaik Mickleburgh (you have to be young to have a crap name like Jaik) and Adam Wheater, and left arm quick Reece Topley. Fitted around them are peg-legged Owais Shah, sometime England flat track bully Ravi Bopara, Graham 'the butcher' Napier, and veteran Matt Walker. Then the journeymen really begin. Mark Pettini. Tim Phillips. David Masters. We would say this is a middling effort.

On paper Essex look a far stronger batting lineup than bowling. Heck, Ravi Bopara has bowled the second most overs for Essex this season. We presume this is due to a slightly selfish streak that was agreed with Essex in the winter. 'I won't play in the IPL as long as you let me bowl', was probably the gist of the conversation, quickly followed by someone muttering under their breath that just because he can trundle in a bit won't make him a better player than Eoin Morgan. However, Essex's batsmen have not exactly been on fire so far. Sadly for Gloucestershire both Peg-leg and Napier have recently returned to the side and appear hungry for action.

Somebody who won't be playing for Essex is their overseas star, Lonwabo Tsotsobe. The South African thought he was a premiership footballer and decided to voice what surely must be the opinion of all overseas players by tweeting 'what the hell am I doing here'. There is something just not quite right about the twitter saga raising its comedy head in division 2 of the county championship. Perhaps more intriguingly, who the hell follows Lonwabo Tsotsobe on Twitter?!

As for Gloucestershire, well because we are writing this before the second day of the actual match, Gloucestershire's official website doesn't have a squad list yet. Will 'the better' Gidman be fit? Which of the young seamers will be chosen? We would expect the top order to remain the same and that both Norwell and Payne will play if Gidman is not fit. This is a big match for this young side and another chance for the bowlers in particular, to take on some second rate test players.