News

Captain Klinger Leads From The Front

21 July 2013

Michael Klinger led Gloucestershire to an emphatic 10-wicket Friends Life T20 victory over Glamorgan at Cheltenham and then defended the College Ground pitch.

Glamorgan struggled with the bat and posted a disappointing 98-9 in 20 overs on a slow pitch that offered turn for the spinners.

But Klinger and Chris Dent staged an unbroken opening stand of 99 in just 12.5 overs to put Glamorgan’s  innings in perspective, after which umpires Graham Lloyd and Richard Illingworth said they would not be reporting the pitch.

Michael told this website: “To finish off the Festival with a convincing win after two losses is great for the club and great for everyone who came out to support us.

“We got the runs inside 13 overs, so that suggests it was a pretty good pitch. I think we just bowled a little better than Glamorgan and assessed the conditions and hit into better areas than they did.

“We had a similar wicket in our first T20 game here against Warwickshire, but this one was better. Glamorgan play on similar wickets at their home ground, but we had a head-start on them because we’d been playing here for 11 days and had a home advantage.

“It was turning a bit, but then so have most of the wickets we’ve played twenty20 on this year. It was certainly not a bad cricket wicket – we just assessed the conditions quicker than they did, because we had a background on it.”

Ed Young (3-21) and David Payne (3-17) bowled superbly to restrict Glamorgan and Dent then posted a career-best-equalling score of 63 not out to hasten victory.

Michael had the best seat in the house from the other end and quickly decided to adopt a supporting role.

Explaining the decision to promote Dent to open for the first time in twenty20 cricket, Michael said: “We decided to move Chris up because he is a left hander and we knew Glamorgan would open up with two left arm orthodox spinners.

“Credit to Chris – he played some great shots and was very confident against the turning ball.

“The way it turned out, I was just able to keep giving him the strike and he kept the momentum going. With him playing the way he did, my role had to change a little bit.”

For more details of an emphatic Gloucestershire win click on Cricket and then Match Reports.

• Previous
• Next