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John Predicts Run Feast Today

21 July 2013

John Bracewell is predicting a run feast as Gloucestershire complete the Cheltenham Festival with a Friends Life t20 game against Glamorgan this afternoon (2.30pm start).

The club’s director of cricket is aware of how disappointed a sell-out crowd were last Sunday when a suspect pitch led to his team being bowled out for 96 before losing by six wickets.

But John expects today’s scoring to be more akin to last Tuesday’s clash with Northants in which 395 runs were scored.

He said: “Against Glamorgan we will again be using the pitch we played Northants on. It has had a sprinkling of moisture every night to dampen it down and I would expect it to slow down a touch.

“On the other hand, the outfield is getting quicker by the day, which means anything hit ten yards either side of a boundary fielder is four. I anticipate a high-scoring game where anything between 160 and 190 will be competitive.”

John is unhappy with the way Gloucestershire’s Midlands/Wales/West Division campaign fizzled out after a promising start, which included victory over Worcestershire at Bristol and the narrowest of defeats by Somerset at Taunton.

“I’m disappointed with how we have performed,” he said. “We went into the competition believing we are a competitive side and I still think we are.

“Twenty20 is such a finely balanced sort of game that you can lose rhythm quite quickly and, having played on two slow wickets we lost ours.

“We failed to adjust to a poor pitch when we went to Worcester, having played at Taunton in our previous game, and then found ourselves on another poor wicket against Warwickshire.

“It was in those two games that we lost our momentum. We then played on a better pitch against Northants, but because it was in the middle of the Cheltenham Festival we needed to rest our front-line bowlers and rely on our batsmen to chase down any target.

“That was a good match, but we got hit for more sixes and it proved the difference.”

“Having only one spinner in our ranks has proved costly. You need two to complete the balance of your team and, well as Tom Smith has performed for us, we have missed Jack Taylor and Ed Smith.

“Both had performed well in the competition over the past two or three years. In T20 bowlers need to be quick and hit the bat hard or slow and spin it. In-between paces are quite hittable.”

Young has been named in today's squad for the first time since suffering a wrist injury back in May.

Gloucestershire (from) M.Klinger (capt), H.Marshall, C.Dent, I.Cockbain, D.Christian, A.Gidman, B.Howell, E.Young, T.Smith, D.Payne, C.Miles, M.Taylor, M.Hammond.

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