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Match Preview - Gloucestershire v Middlesex

24 July 2019

Gloucestershire will be looking to get their first win of the Vitality Blast campaign as South Group leaders Middlesex visit Cheltenham College.

The last match these sides played at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival in 2017 ended up being an epic encounter. The match ended in a tie after Gloucestershire’s Tom Smith caught Nathan Sowter out on the last ball of the match.

The Gloucestershire team head into the game brimming with confidence having put in an incredible bowling performance in their Blast opener against Glamorgan before heavy showers brought an early end to proceedings.

Benny Howell picked up five wickets from his allocation while David Payne and Andrew Tye also opened their accounts taking one wicket each.

Cheltenham College has proven to be both fruitful and nerve-wracking for all supporters. Gloucestershire’s last two County Championship games have gone down to the wire and resulted in jubilation for fans of The Shire who witnessed two incredible last gasp victories.  

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

Klinger, Hammond, Cockbain, Bracey, Higgins, J Taylor, Howell, Tye, Smith, Payne, Liddle, van Buuren, Dent, Price.

In their opening two victories, Middlesex have shown their strength in numbers on both sides of the ball. Dawid Malan is coming into the game having just made 117 off 57 to guide Middlesex to a London derby win. Toby Roland-Jones took four-for while Tom Helm, Nathan Sowter and overseas signing Mujeeb Ur Rahman also took wickets. AB de Villiers was their man in their competition opener against Essex, reaching 88 not out off just 43 balls.

Middlesex have also won their last two Specsavers County Championship games against Gloucestershire and Glamorgan, taking their win streak across all formats to four. However, they will not be able to call on last year’s top scorer for Middlesex, Paul Stirling who is representing Ireland against England at Lord’s.

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