News

Preview : Howell's groin injury ends ever present T20 run

29 July 2017

A sequence of 64 consecutive matches in T20 cricket for Benny Howell will come to end at Chelmsford tonight (7.00) as Gloucestershire look to regain the early impetus of their campaign in the South Group with a win over Essex.

The French born all rounder, who passed 1,000 career runs in the format in the win over Kent at Canterbury, appeared to be struggling during Tuesday's match with Glamorgan and although he retained his place for Friday's match with Hampshire, he bowled only one over before leaving the field. The potential length of his absence will be assessed over the next few days.

Gloucestershire's position in the South Group has certainly taken a hit over the last week. From being within one win of going top of the group, they head to Chelmsford in seventh place and with ground to make up, albeit with games in hand and captain Michael Klinger - a centurion against Hampshire at the Brightside Ground - says it's in the field where performances have to be lifted again.

"I wouldn't say we played poorly against Hampshire but we were outplayed and that happens sometimes. In the end we got a score we were really happy with because our average at Bristol in the last couple of seasons is in the mid 150's and then Vince and Rossouw took the game away from us."

"We've got to get better because we're going to come up against quality batsmen like them all the time in this competition and it's something we must work on going forward. The aim now is to get the win at Essex which would keep up towards the top end of the table."

Gloucestershire's victory at Chelmsford last season was their first time at the County Ground in the 20 over format, but tonight's fixture is the second one on the roster in 24 hours, something head coach Richard Dawson understands most clubs expect at some point.

"We've been in this position before so it's nothing new and you just get on with it. We prepared for the Hampshire match knowing we would be able to have a chat about Essex on the coach down to Chelmsford."

"We reflect honestly on every game, talking about what happened and what we either didn't do or need to do better. Essex may not have Cook or Westley but are similar to us in that they have a lot of all-rounders and bat a long way down the order."

Coverage :

You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @GlosCricket

• Previous
• Next