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Somerset Preview: Glos look to reclaim bragging rights in local derby - Dent

15 June 2016

Chris Dent says Gloucestershire will be looking to reclaim bragging rights when local rivals Somerset visit the Brightside Ground, Bristol this Friday.  For tickets, click here.

Having lost to them in the Royal London One-Day Cup earlier this month, Dent says the squad are fully focused on bouncing back in the NatWest T20 Blast.

He said: “There is a big rivalry. We always want to get one over on them and they want to get one over on us. They beat us last time we played so we will be looking to get our own back on Friday.”

With additional seating in place for the upcoming One Day International, the Westcountry neighbours will go head-to-head in front of a crowd of more than 10,000, a record for a Gloucestershire home game.

The game will be the first “Cider Derby” under floodlights. And Chris says he is expecting a noisy night.

He said: “The crowds are always a lot bigger for these games and a lot more rowdy so I am expecting a great atmosphere.

“When you are fielding on the boundary you get the crowd telling you, you are going to drop a catch or miss the ball but you just try to block it out. I normally get some stick linked to my surname –“let’s make a Dent in the batting order” or something.  Down at Taunton I once  got called an Oompa-Loompa (Willy Wonka’s knee-high helpers from Roald Dahl’s children’s book) which was pretty funny.

“The lads always look forward to these matches and hopefully we can give the home fans plenty to sing about on Friday.”

While Somerset’s visit will see the rekindling of a number of rivalries between the two sets of players, it is a man appearing in his first Cider Derby that has - as always - stolen the headlines – the record breaking West Indian batsman and self-styled “Universe Boss” Chris Gayle.

Among his plethora of achievements the Somerset batsman holds the record for most T20 hundreds, highest T20 score, most sixes and joint-fastest half century (12 balls).

Chris said: “When you look at what he has done he must be the best player ever in T20 and he is the kind of player that crowds come to see.

“When it is his day he can win a game on his own. We will stick to our game plan, back our bowlers and hope he doesn’t have one of those days on Friday.”

Gloucestershire have lost both of their previous home matches this season but have picked up away wins at Middlesex and Kent - where Chris hit the winning runs with a six over long off.

And despite the mixed results, the left hander says the T20 Blast is a tournament the squad can excel in.

He said: “We feel we have a pretty good T20 side. AJ Tye has come in and made a big difference to us. He is a really good T20 bowler and that has really strengthened us at the death compared to last year.

“In white ball cricket generally we haven’t been getting enough runs for our bowlers to defend but hopefully we can build on the RL Cup win over Hampshire (where Glos scored 352-3 and Dent made 142) and take that into the T20 this week.”

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