Klinger believes three wins will secure T20 progress
8 August 2018
17 points is the minimum tally that captain Michael Klinger thinks Gloucestershire have to reach in the South Group to ensure a place in the last eight of the Vitality T20 Blast.
The remaining games - played in just nine days - start with the visit of Middlesex to the Brightside Ground on Thursday (6.30pm).
Glamorgan's win over Essex on Tuesday took them above Gloucestershire on net run rate, and Klinger is prepared for qualification to go to the final couple of rounds with six teams in the South Group still in contention.
"We have five games to go, some of the other teams have four and if two of them are playing each other they can't both win" Klinger said.
"If I was being greedy it would have been nice to win all the three away games last week but to be fair to Glamorgan they outplayed us in most facets of the match last Friday and Jack Taylor almost single handedly got us over the line. We are in a strong position but I still think we have to get three more wins to make sure we qualify for the quarter finals."
After missing Sunday's win at Canterbury, both Jack Taylor and Tom Smith return to a squad of 13.
Squad:
Klinger (c), Hammond, Cockbain, Howell, Higgins, J.Taylor, Noema-Barnett, Roderick, Tye, Smith, Payne, M.Taylor, van Buuren.
The match also sees James Fuller return to the Brightside Ground for for the first time in a T20 match since he left Gloucestershire in 2015. Fuller missed the entirety of Middlesex's 2017 season with an elbow injury and didn't play in the 2016 fixture, but this season he has already taken a career best 6-28 against Hampshire and he's a player who has Klinger's full respect.
"In my first few years at the club I would like to have James in the team because whilst he had his bad days he had the potential to strike with the new ball and he was a dangerous hitter at the end of the innings."
"Middlesex might be sitting in a low position in the table but you look at their top five batsmen and they are as good as any team in the competition. We have played well away from home and we still have three home games left where we know the conditions well so to get some good crowds and put on the performances to match would be great."
Coverage:
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket.
Ball by ball commentary is also available on the BBC Sport website.
