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Crunch time for Gloucestershire in the YB40

9 August 2013

Gloucestershire's players are braced for a huge eight days of Yorkshire Bank 40 action, which starts with Sunday's West Country derby against Somerset at Taunton.

The two sides are level on 11 points at the top of Group C, with Gloucestershire holding a game in hand on their great rivals. Michael Klinger's side will then play Leicestershire at Bristol on Tuesday and Middlesex under the Lord's floodlights on Thursday before hosting Somerset at the County Ground on Monday week.

Gloucestershire will need to win at least two of those games to stay in the hunt for a semi-final place, which will be taken by the three group winners and the best second-placed team.

Somerset did the double over Gloucestershire in the Friends Life t20, but Klinger's men are unbeaten in 40-over cricket since losing their group opener to Leicestershire in early May.

The Gloucestershire skipper said: "I wouldn’t say Somerset is a must-win game this weekend, but it is a pretty important game.

"Lose and we will have ground to make up. Win and we will put ourselves in a pretty strong position with four games to go.

"We have a game in hand on Somerset and beating them at Taunton would give us a crucial advantage.

"Somerset have had the edge over us in Twenty20 cricket, but the YB40 is a very different game.

"Since losing our first game to Leicestershire, we have been unbeaten and gone from strength to strength.

"We have played some of our best cricket in this competition and the guys will go into a busy week full of confidence."

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