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Match Preview: Gloucestershire v Durham

20 September 2021

Gloucestershire return to Bristol County Ground with hopes of an eighth LV=Insurance County Championship win in the final match of the season against Durham.

Thanks to an impressive 10-wicket victory over Glamorgan at Cardiff last week, The Shire became the winningest team in this season’s County Championship with seven victories in 13 matches. Now, a home fixture to end the year will decide the final placings in Division Two.

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire | All four days live on the Gloscricket Match Centre HERE | 10:30am Start Time

After taking three wickets against Essex to open his account for Gloucestershire, Zafar Gohar was the difference against Glamorgan taking 6/43 on the third and final days; the best bowling figures from a Glos player in an innings this season.

Zafar will be looking for his first wicket in Bristol as he hopes to end his four-game stint at The Shire on a high. Graeme van Buuren and Ollie Price are two other spin bowling options Ian Harvey has selected in his 14-man squad.

Gloucestershire got over their first innings batting woes with a season’ best 419 in the last outing at Sophia Gardens. Seven players scored over 30 runs with Chris Dent leading the way with 75 off 153, closely followed by Tom Price who added 71 off 165 coming in at nine.

The aforementioned Dent, who also hit the winning runs against Glamorgan, stepped down as Club captain after the match meaning James Bracey, as first-class vice-captain, will lead the team out against Durham.

Bracey missed last week’s match due to a concussion suffered in training. As the County’s leading scorer in the competition with 677 runs at 37.61, Bracey will be welcomed back into the side especially considering Ben Charlesworth has been ruled out with a side strain suffered while bowling against Glamorgan.

Ben Wells may consider himself unlucky if he were left out of the lineup with Bracey’s return, but the 21-year-old who made 40 in his first-class debut has been included in the matchday squad.

Gloucestershire’s 14-man squad for tomorrow’s match:

Durham come into the match having not lost a County Championship match since the end of May. The team from the north have won one match and drawn one in the Division stage with their match against Surrey abandoned due to a positive Covid-19 test within the squad.

Currently sitting third in the Division, Durham are just 0.33 points per game behind Gloucestershire and a win would send them above The Shire into second. A draw however, would in fact benefit Gloucestershire more with an extra game played.

Durham have been an impressive batting side with South African David Bedingham leading the way and surpassing 1,000 runs in their last match. Lees, Eckersley and Borthwick have all contributed more than 450 runs each, contributing to big totals including five declarations.

Chris Rushworth has unsurprisingly been the County’s top wicket-taker with 56 at an average of 18.39; Only Luke Fletcher of Nottinghamshire has taken more wickets in this year’s competition. All-rounder Ben Raine has also been on form with the ball, taking 40 wickets at an average of 23.22.

Durham’s 13-man squad for the season finale:

David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick (c), Paul Coughlin, Graham Clark, Ned Eckersley (wk), Michael Jones, Alex Lees, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Chris Rushworth, Matt Salisbury, Liam Trevaskis & Stuart Poynter.

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