Surrey v Gloucestershire | Quarter-Final Match Preview
14 August 2021
Gloucestershire head to London to take on Surrey in the quarter-final of the Royal London Cup, a first appearance in the knockout stage of the competition since the winning season of 2015.
After a dramatic final day of fixtures in the group stages, Gloucestershire’s place in the quarter-finals was secured thanks to Essex tying their match against Lancashire. With four wins from seven games, Ian Harvey’s side qualified on a ‘points per completed match’ basis.
Despite setbacks due to Covid, missing six players due to The Hundred and losing the opening two group matches at home, The Shire won four of their last five matches to shoot up the standings as other teams dropped points.
Surrey v Gloucestershire | Live on the Gloscricket Match Centre HERE | 11:00am Start Time
Captain Chris Dent, who had only scored 63 runs through the opening six matches, found form in the last group match against Kent Spitfires making an unbeaten 112 off 108 balls. That was the second consecutive match in which a Gloucestershire opening batter had faced the opening delivery and was still standing at the end of the innings; Ben Charlesworth did so last week scoring 99* against Hampshire.
Graeme van Buuren has been dazzling with his left-arm spin bowling, taking three wickets in each of the last three matches to put him top of the Club’s wicket-taking list in this year’s Royal London Cup. He’s also contributed 76 runs in those matches, including an unbeaten 51 against Kent Spitfires.
Ben Charlesworth and Tom Lace both remain unavailable for the match having missed the final group match against Kent.
Gloucestershire’s 14-man squad travelling to The Kia Oval will be revealed soon.
Surrey qualified for the knockout stage after finishing second in Group B, on the same numbers of points as Glamorgan and Yorkshire but with the second-best run rate.
23-year-old South African Conor McKerr has led all bowlers in the competition with 16 wickets at an impressive strike rate of 17.7. He has been backed up by spinner Dan Moriarty who has 13 wickets with an economy rate of 4.34.
Even though they have two talented young players leading the way, they are not bearing too heavy a load with Cameron Steel and Matt Dunn contributing 17 wickets between them.
Ryan Patel has been the Londoners top scorer with 354 runs at a whopping average of 70.80. He will be a crucial wicket to take if Gloucestershire are to progress to the semi-final.
Tim David also fits into that bracket of important wickets to take having scored 140* and 52* at number four in the last two matches.
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