News

Match Preview - Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire

22 September 2019

Gloucestershire play host to fellow promotion hopefuls Northamptonshire in what will be the final and most important match of the season.

With only nine points needed to solidify promotion to Division One, Gloucestershire will be hoping to avoid defeat to second placed Northamptonshire who are in a very similar position.

Richard Dawson’s side defeated Worcestershire in three days in their last County Championship outing, placing them in third position just five points behind this week’s opponents and out of reach of Durham and Sussex who both lost.

Glamorgan are the only team who can deny Gloucestershire promotion provided they win well at Durham, but The Shire’s fate remains firmly in their own hands with home advantage in their favour.

Dawson says there is no extra pressure heading into the game:

“I’d rather be in this situation, playing for something going into the last game at Bristol than not having anything on the game. We’ve just got to continue playing some decent cricket and hopefully six or seven lads put in a good performance like they did this past week.”

An extra day’s rest could prove vital in the final game of a long, taxing season with so much at stake. One plus for Dawson’s side is that Shannon Gabriel looks to have found his feet once more in England having taken his first two wickets for Gloucestershire in their last match.

Ryan Higgins and David Payne are also in scintillating form, the former taking eight wickets against Worcestershire to bring his First-class total for the season to 50. Higgins is also on the verge of surpassing 1,000 First-class runs in what has been a fantastic year for the 24-year-old who recently penned a new deal to stay at the Club until the end of the 2023 season.

Captain Chris Dent accomplished this feat last week, hitting the 1,000 mark for the third time in his career but it was somewhat unlikely contributions from David Payne and Josh Shaw that helped Gloucestershire over the line at New Road.

George Hankins is included in the squad after an incredible 223* off 214 for the Second XI in a four-day friendly against Somerset. Tom Smith, who injured his thumb in the Worcestershire match is the man to miss out. 

Gloucesterhire’s 13-man squad to face Northamptonshire:

Dent, Bracey, Roderick, Hammond, Hankins, Higgins, Charlesworth, J Taylor, van Buuren, Payne, Shaw, M Taylor, Gabriel.

Northamptonshire have crept up the Division Two table having not one a match until their eighth game against Sussex at the end of June. Since then they have been unbeaten in the league winning each of their last four games to put them 21 points clear of fourth placed Glamorgan.

Wicket-Keeper Adam Rossington leads the line with the bat for Northants with 787 runs for the season but has yet failed to record a century so far this season, his top score 82 coming last week at home to Durham. Someone who has is 21-year-old Ricardo Vasconcelos who did so at Chester-le-Street back in June.

An experienced Ben Sanderson has been their leading wicket-taker with the third most in the division (58). He took eight wickets in their last match including a first innings haul of 6/54 – the second time this season he has taken six-for. Brett Hutton and Nathan Buck have also chipped in with 57 wickets collectively.

• Previous
• Next