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Batty Fifty Then Fuller And Norwell Strike

4 September 2012

Jon Batty and Alex Gidman hit half-centuries before Gloucestershire were bowled out for 220 on the opening day of the LV=County Championship match with Northamptonshire at Bristol.

By the close of an amazing day Northants had been reduced to 73-7 in reply, James Fuller and Liam Norwell claiming three wickest each.

After Andrew Hall had ripped out Gloucestershire's top order with a spell of 3-2 in 11 balls, Alex Gidman counter-attacked to hit 56 off 52 balls, with 11 fours.

But Gloucestershire still found themselves in big trouble at 151-8 before Batty came to the rescue with 55, his first half-century of the season.

The wicketkeeper hit 7 fours in facing 96 deliveries before being last man out, having shared a ninth-wicket stand of 58 with Anthony Ireland, who made 22.

It still looked a modest total when Northants eased to 30 without loss in reply. But then Fuller and Norwell created carnage with some full and accurate seam bowling.

Pitch inspector David Hughes pronounced himself happy with the wicket and after the close Alex Gidman found it hard to explain the fsll of 17 wickets.

He told this website: “The pitch has just offered a bit of seam movement and most of the damage has been done by balls of almost half-volley length.

“The ball hasn’t swung much and it’s hard to explain why batting has been so tough. It has been difficult to hit through the ball because the wicket is quite slow.

“But full balls don’t usually cause such problems. I can’t see the pitch getting any better so hopefully we are in a good position, but there is a lot of hard work still ahead.”

Gloucestershire went into the game bottom of the Championship Second Division and Gidman added: “It’s tough because we feel we have played better cricket than our position suggests.

“However stats are stats and our points tally tells a story, so we have to fight like mad over the last couple of games to get off the bottom. Two wins would take us to mid-table, which is where we feel we should be.”

For more details of dayone against Northants click on Cricket and then Match reports.

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