Dent & van Buuren lead Gloucestershire's Response on Day Two
13 September 2021
Chris Dent and Graeme van Buuren helped Gloucestershire into a positive position on the second day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens.
Two superb catches by Glamorgan skipper Chris Cooke, and two wickets in three balls by off-spinner Andrew Salter, stopped Gloucestershire romping to a big second day total.
Cooke dived full length to take one catch with his left hand and then took another in similar fashion with his right to remove Miles Hammond (34) and then Tom Lace (12) off seamers Michael Hogan and David Lloyd.
Responding to Glamorgan’s first innings total of 309 all out, Gloucestershire were going along very nicely until Cooke’s intervention. Skipper Chris Dent and Hammond had successfully negotiated 18 overs before Hammond’s nick brought their first wicket stand to an end at 63.
Lace went with the score on 90 and that allowed Dent and Graeme van Buuren into wade into a home attack that lacked punch and length. They put on 96 for the third wicket, with Dent playing the anchor role until he attempted to ramp Salter and was clean bowled.
He left for 75, his fifth half-century of the season, with the score on 184-3. Two balls later, Ryan Higgins went back to another Salter delivery and was plum LBW to make it 184-4.
Dent was pivotal to his side’s score in their reply to Glamorgan’s 309 all out, sharing a 63 run opening stand with Miles Hammond and then putting on 96 with Graeme van Buuren for the third wicket.
Speaking about the team's performance, Chris said:
“We were pleased to knock them over pretty quickly in the morning. We had worked very hard on the first day and we said that if we carried on in a similar way we would get our rewards. It was nice they didn’t get too many more because we know they bat deep and can be dangerous. It nipped about a bit, and we rode our luck, so it was nice to get through that and set a bit of a platform. We have struggled recently early on, so that was good.
“Graeme van Buuren is a good man to bat with and he did what he has done all year, come out and be positive. He took the attack to them and batted fantastically and hopefully he can kick on tomorrow. I didn’t want to take too many risks while Graeme was hitting the boundaries at the other end. It is still a pretty good pitch at the moment and we need to try to get past them and get a lead.”
Van Buuren was the aggressor throughout and reached his 50 off 87 balls with his 10th four of the day. He was unbeaten on 65 when the players went off for bad light at 4.47pm, with Ben Wells, on his championship debut, contributing a very handy 25 to steer the visitors to 224-4, trailing by 85 runs.
The Glamorgan seamers, other than Hogan, were expensive and rarely troubled the Gloucestershire batsmen. Ruaidhri Smith was the most expensive, conceding 50 runs from his nine overs, while Timm van der Gugten went for 42 off 15. Salter was the pick of the home bowlers and ended with 2-47 from his 18 overs.
Gloucestershire had struck early when play resumed, removing Salter with the third ball of the morning. He became David Payne’s second victim of the innings and the stubborn partnership between him and Eddie Byrom ended on 73.
Smith lasted three overs before he became the seventh wicket to fall as Higgins picked up his second wicket and then Bryon played on to Payne to depart for 78. He hit 10 fours in an innings that lasted three-and-a-half hours.
Van der Gugten conjured up 14 runs before he was the last man out with Glamorgan having limped over the 300 run mark and ended on 309 all out.
