Benny Top Scores Before Rain At Lord's
26 June 2014
Benny Howell top scored with 39 in a disappointing Gloucestershire total before rain had the final say in the NatWest T20 Blast game with Middlesex at Lord’s.
After skipper Alex Gidman had won the toss and elected to bat, his team struggled to 105-6 from their 20 overs on a two-paced pitch.
But towards the end of the innings the rain set in and there was no opportunity for Middlesex to launch a reply before the match was abandoned with both sides taking one point.
Gloucestershire were 16-3 at one stage, Alex Gidman, Chris Dent and Hamish Marshall all undone trying to play cross-batted shots on a wicket of uneven bounce.
Ian Cockbain contributed 20 before being caught in the deep on the leg side and it was left to Howell and Will Gidman on a rare T20 appearance to move the total towards three figures.
Howell eventually skied a catch to give young Middlesex seamer Harry Podnore his third wicket, having faced 48 balls and hit one four and one six.
There was only one boundary in the first ten overs of Gloucestershire’s innings as the batsmen struggled to time the ball in front of a crowd of more than 12,000.
Adam Rouse made four on his Gloucestershire debut before being bowled attempting a scoop shot, but Will Gidman was still there at the end, having made 24 from 23 balls.
Earlier in the competition, Gloucestershire looked to be robbed by the weather after scoring 200-plus against Glamorgan at Bristol.
This time the weather appeared to conspire against their opponents, who would have been strongly fancied to win the game, although Gloucestershire still felt they could go on to win.
Alex Gidman said: "We were pretty confident that the pitch was only going to get harder to bat on and so, with that in mind, I was clear I wanted to bat first.
"It's very hard to comment because it's only halfway through the game. 105 really doesn't look much at all, but I think we would have had a really good chance still in the conditions."
The outcome left Gloucestershire with four points from their eight NatWest T20 Blast games, having started with a two-point deduction. Middlesex remained bottom of the South Division with three points.
Gloucestershire return to action in the competition tomorrow evening when Kent are the visitors to the Bristol County Ground.
For more details on the Middlesex game click on Cricket and then Match Reports.
