Five wins out of five sends Gloucestershire into the Quarter-Finals
5 August 2015
Gloucestershire joined Surrey in qualifying for the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-finals with a four-wicket win against Worcestershire Rapids at New Road.
In maintaining a 100 per cent record from five completed games, they overcame a brilliant unbeaten 131 from 109 balls by Worcestershire teenager Joe Clarke and successfully handled the absence of their injured captain Michael Klinger.
Clarke hit 10 fours and three sixes in seeing Worcestershire to 264 for eight in a 46-over match and any doubts over Gloucestershire’s ability to cope without the prolific Klinger were dispelled by an opening stand of 106 in 16.5 overs by Will Tavare (61) and Chris Dent (43).
The recalled Tavare faced 56 deliveries, hitting eight fours and a six from the ball before he was bowled by Ed Barnard and Dent went in the next over, leg-before as soon as Brett D’Oliveira joined the attack.
The setback was quickly corrected by a partnership of 100. Gareth Roderick made 56 from 51 balls until he was bowled by Barnard, and Geraint Jones went on 58 from 57 when he was leg-before to Joe Leach.
Worcestershire battled to the end, Leach and Ross Whiteley taking wickets before the visitors got home with seven balls to spare.
Worcestershire’s record in competition is now the exact opposite of Gloucestershire’s – they have lost all five completed games – and it was a big disappointment that the innings of the day by Clarke failed to break the losing run.
The 19-year-old was born in Shrewsbury, went to school in Powys, developed his cricket with Shropshire and in the academy at New Road, and came through to the first-team after playing as wicketkeeper-batsman for England Under-19s last summer.
The latest milestone in his career would not have been a surprise to a quartet of Gloucestershire bowlers. Late in May, James Fuller, Benny Howell, Tom Smith and Jack Taylor were among those on the receiving end when Clarke made an unbeaten 201 in a second-team fixture at Cheltenham College.
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This was the innings which got him into the LV= County Championship and last weekend brought a new experience with promotion to the 50-over side.
Again he was a quick learner, recovering from a duck on debut before registering a first 50 against Surrey and now a first hundred in successive days.
There was a mixture of everything in his batting, authority, confidence, style and at the end a glimpse of power in a 6-6-4 assault on Howell in the final over, giving him 10 fours and three sixes from 109 balls.
It was not that Gloucestershire bowled badly. With Worcestershire missing their captain, Daryl Mitchell, with a hamstring injury, David Payne dismissed the new opening pair, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Richard Oliver, before a light shower reduced the overs.
Howell was next to strike, bowling Tom Fell for 21, and Smith’s left-arm spin brought two wickets as D’Oliveira (22) and Whitley (33) attempted to pick up the pace.
Whiteley shared in a fifth-wicket stand of 87 and from then on it was all about Clarke as he kicked on from a hundred in 97 balls.
Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire’s head coach, said: “It was a decent win obviously. The top four batted beautifully and I thought we bowled especially well. From a performance point of view to keep them to 264 in the conditions, with a short boundary, I thought it was outstanding.
“We could have finished it off a bit easier than we did but we got over the line. We’re playing some good cricket, that’s what has got us to this point.”
Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, said: “I thought it was a tremendous effort from Joe Clarke to get his highest score in List A cricket. For a first century it was brilliant. For a young kid he shows a lot of promise for the future. I’m excited by his qualities. First and foremost with his batting, we are really pleased with him doing as well as he did.”
