News

Unchanged squad for last away game at Northampton

11 September 2016

Gloucestershire head to Wantage Road for their final away game in Division 2 of the County Championship still with the opportunity to improve considerably on last season's sixth placed finish in the table.

The team are only seven points shy of last season's final total (177), and victory at Northampton - last achieved in 2010 - would not only surpass that, but keep alive the chance of a finish in the top three with a home game against Sussex to conclude the season.

It's been an eventful year at Northampton, with talk of financial issues at the club the backdrop to the early weeks of the summer. Latterly, they proved to be an effective T20 outfit, reaching Finals Day at Edgbaston and lifting the trophy with a narrow win over Nottinghamshire.

One of their key batsmen in short form cricket, 21 year old left hander Ben Duckett, has also scored a glut of runs in recent weeks, enough for some respected observers to suggest a winter tour place is a strong possibility.

Gloucestershire come into the game having had an extra day to prepare following a convincing win by 10 wickets inside three days against Glamorgan in Cardiff.

The match saw Chris Dent pass 1,000 Championship runs for the season, while Jack Taylor and Hamish Marshall - the latter clearly enjoying his final month on the Gloucestershire staff before returning to New Zealand - maintained their record, along with Dent, of being the only other players to feature in every Championship match so far this season.

Head coach Richard Dawson has named an unchanged squad of 13, with Liam Norwell and Tom Smith travelling to Northampton along with the 11 on duty at the Swalec Stadium.

Squad :
Roderick (c), Dent, Tavare, Hankins, Marshall, Mustard, J.Taylor, Miles, Payne, Shaw, M.Taylor, Norwell, Smith.

"The main thing about the performance at Glamorgan was that we improved on a lot of things we had spoken about" Dawson said. "Although we lost three early wickets in the first innings we then worked hard to get a decent lead and then didn't let Glamorgan off the hook second time around."

"Northants are playing very positive cricket at the moment, and scoring quickly as they tend to do makes them a dangerous team" he went on. "They've got some players in really good form. Rory Kleinveldt got eight wickets at Kent last week, their spinners have been chipping in as well, and their skipper Alex Wakely and particularly Duckett have been getting runs."

"At the start of the season we asked the boys for an improvement on last year, and we knew it would hard with only one team going up. That's still the aim with regard to both points and our final placing."

Coverage :
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket.

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