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Essex v Gloucestershire: Day 1 match report

10 April 2016

Sunny Chelmsford was the venue for the first day of Gloucestershire’s Specsavers County Championship campaign, taking on Essex.

Gloucestershire posted 262 in their first innings, with Essex finishing the day on 39 for 1.

After winning the toss, the visitor’s innings owed much to Gareth Roderick and Hamish Marshall, the pair scoring just over half of their side’s runs.

Skipper Roderick combined watchful defence with some pleasant driving to finish unbeaten with 88 after Australian fast bowler Matt Dixon had marked his Essex Championship debut by whipping out Cameron Bancroft and Chris Dent in his first half dozen overs.

In all,  Roderick faced 172 deliveries and struck 11 fours and a six, but it was Marshall who was the most fluent. His 51 came from 60 deliveries, nine of which  he struck to the boundary and all his runs came during a fourth wicket partnership worth 73 runs. Marshall’s fine effort was  eventually brought to an end by a diving catch by Jesse Ryder at backward point to provide pace man Jamie Porter with one of his four wickets at a cost of 59.

Graham Napier shared the bowling honours with  Porter with the evergreen Essex all-rounder picking up 3 for 57,  those successes  coming in a spell of  6 balls that cost just a single. As a result, Gloucestershire lost their last four wickets in the space of 5 overs for 23 runs.

Among Napier’s victims was Jack Taylor who scored a resolute 39, an effort containing five fours. A feature of the home side’s display was their work in the field. Apart from Ryder’s fine effort, Alastair Cook, who caught Ian Cockbain,  and Dan Lawrence also picked up fine catches, the latter reacting quickly after Tom Westley had knocked the ball up when Kieran Noema-Barnett edged a Ryder delivery.

When they replied, Essex soon lost Nick Browne, an lbw  of Liam Norwell with just 2 runs on the board.

But Cook was confirming  his authority with two fours in an over from Josh Shaw  as he reached the close on 17.

Keeping him company was Tom Westley who also looked assured as he collected four boundaries in his 19 to leave the home county seemingly in pole position.

Gloucestershire Head coach Richard Dawson reflected: “We did some very  good stuff,  we would obviously have liked some more runs with the bat. Gareth Roderick and Hamish Marshall batted well very for us. Essex took some fine catches and we had a good spell with the ball at the end and might have picked up a couple more."

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