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That Was So Much Better Says Centurion Klinger

30 June 2013

Michael Klinger was a happy captain after his superb century had led Gloucestershire to a 48-run Friends Life t20 win over Worcestershire at Bristol.

What pleased the skipper even more that his 108 off 63 balls, with 9 fours and 5 sixes, was the way his team bounced back from Friday night’s disappointing display at Northampton.

They ran up 184-5 after winning the toss and then restricted Worcestershire to 136 all out in reply, James Fuller claiming three wickets and David Payne and Benny Howell two each.

Michael told this website: “I told the lads after the Northants game that in my experience even successful teams have one shocker in T20 competitions and hopefully we got ours out of the way on Friday evening.

“We had a similar start in 40-over cricket this season and recovered from it. I can’t put my finger on why things have not gone well in our opening one-day games.

“We had specific plans for today’s match. We know our own ground and had some practice games here, so we know which areas to hit and how to use the wind, which was pretty strong.

“One of the reasons I decided to bat first was that I didn’t want Worcestershire to see how we bowled. It was a great result for us and we executed our plans really well.

“I’ve got a few seventies in T20 cricket before and it wasn’t really in my mind to get a century until I crept up into the nineties

.

"I was just trying to score as many as I could for the team. I targeted one end, hitting with the wind most of the time, and it worked out successfully.

“The Worcestershire team are a great bunch of guys, as I found when playing with them last season, but it’s always nice to score runs against your former clubs.”

Michael’s first century in Twenty20 cricket thrilled a large crowd at the County Ground and a measure of it was that the next highest individual score in the game was 39 from Worcestershire’s Alexei Kervezee.

The visitors were never in it chasing a target of 185 as the home side bowled and fielded with skill and determination.

Gloucestershire’s next game is against arch-rivals Somerset at Taunton on Friday evening. For more details on the Worcestershire game click on Cricket and then Match Reports.

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