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Northants Game Is Huge For Us - Michael

1 August 2013

Michael Klinger believes Gloucestershire can force themselves into the thick of the LV=County Championship Second Division promotion race with a good performance at Northampton this weekend.

The club go into the match, which starts on Friday, 18 points behind Northants, who occupy second promotion place behind leaders Lancashire.

A victory would close that gap and see Klinger and his team well placed to claim a First Division place next season with five matches to go.

Michael told this website: "We go into every Championship match looking to win and to gain maximum points.

"But this is clearly a huge game for us because the opportunity is there to close the gap on Lancashire and Northants at the top of the table.

"I am sure Northants will come out hard with the intention of winning the game so it's important that we play good cricket on day one to put ourselves in a decent position.

"If we start well it will be interesting to see if they adopt a more conservative option to try and maintain their points advantage over us. But if they do that they risk other teams making ground.

"If I were in their position I would continue trying to play positive cricket. We will certainly be looking to do that from the outset.

"It could mean battling hard on day one if we find ourselves bowling on a good wicket and getting them seven down for 300. Equally, if we bat on a green pitch it will mean fighting hard with the bat to get towards that sort of total.

"The key thing is to establish a foothold in the game from which we can dictate it."

James Fuller appears to have recovered from his foot injury and is available to boost Gloucestershire's bowling attack.

Squad From: Michael Klinger (Cpt), Chris Dent, Gareth Roderick (Wkt), Alex Gidman, Hamish Marshall, Ian Cockbain, Benny Howell, Will Gidman, James Fuller, Tom Smith, Craig Miles, Liam Norwell, Tom Shrewsbury

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