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Patel dictates tactics with double hundred

11 June 2017

A career best score by Nottinghamshire all rounder Samit Patel saw the Division 2 leaders tighten their grip on this game during the third day at the Brightside Ground.

Having started the morning 78 not out, Patel not only completed his hundred but then added another one to it as Nottinghamshire built a lead that not only left Gloucestershire playing for a draw, but also maintained a chance of the visitors recording a victory.

The declaration, at 535-8, came when Patel reached 257 not out, beating his previous best score in first class cricket. Ten overs remained for Gloucestershire to survive, and although Bancroft went cheaply, Dent and Tavare were together at stumps when Gloucestershire had reached 30-1, 202 runs behind.

Listen to the close of play thoughts of head coach Richard Dawson here:

An increasingly pale Bristol wicket greeted the players at the start of the day, and even with a new ball at their disposal the Gloucestershire bowlers would have known that based on the first two days play the seven remaining wickets were unlikely to fall in a clump. Indeed from a Nottinghamshire viewpoint, the day went almost perfectly to script.

Craig Miles' removal of night watchman Luke Fletcher for a duck after an edge to 'keeper Gareth Roderick took only four overs, but for some while afterwards the game reverted to the steady - some might say slow - tempo of the previous six sessions. There was no devilment in the wicket, but equally attacking shots bore an element of risk few batsmen were prepared to take, hence runs were accumulated in largely unspectacular fashion.

It seems hard to talk about a double hundred in such tones, but in terms of strokes Patel's innings was, chiefly, unremarkable. He did have moments of fortune, but his concentration to knuckle down and double his score after reaching his first hundred with a succession of carefully placed rather than powerful shots highlighted a ruthless approach borne of a career played almost exclusively in Division 1. The even pace of his innings also showed excellent game awareness.

Left hander Michael Lumb was first to join Patel after Fletcher was out, and they added 54 in measured fashion until Lumb (23) was lbw to Chris Liddle. By lunch the overnight deficit had been erased by Patel and Riki Wessels, who was the first to offer a change of gear in the period just before the interval.

Wessels' cameo ended when he played back to Jack Taylor and was lbw for 18 , but Nottinghamshire skipper Chris Read was just the man to pick up the baton. In his final season as a player, the former Gloucestershire 'keeper put together a stand of 83 with Patel, driving crisply through the covers and lofting Noema-Barnett over long-on for six.

In making 40, Read passed 16,000 first class runs before Noema-Barnett bowled him with the lead at 105, but Hutton - who was at the other end when Patel completed his double hundred with a square drive off Noema-Barnett - and Wood, who played freely for an unbeaten 38, were good foils for the painstaking patient Patel. When the declaration came, he had batted for more than eight hours, and struck 23 fours and one six.

On such an unresponsive pitch, it was no surprise that Gloucestershire skipper Phil Mustard shared the work amongst his bowlers. Their control in the conditions was commendable, and it was only in the final hour or so - when Nottinghamshire scored 96 runs in 20 overs - that the run rate significantly increased.

It left Gloucestershire an awkward ten overs to negotiate before stumps, only for Cameron Bancroft to depart to the second delivery, lbw to Luke Fletcher. Dent and Tavare stood firm until the close but at 30-1, 202 behind, Gloucestershire are firmly on the back foot with one day remaining.

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