Unchanged squad named for trip to Lord's
29 April 2017
Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson has elected to take the same squad of 13 selected for Thursday's Royal London Cup opener against Glamorgan to Lord's for Sunday's match in the South group against Middlesex.
It means Kieran Noema-Barnett and Craig Miles - both omitted on Thursday - remain in his thinking as Gloucestershire face the highest scorers in the competition so far, Middlesex making 341-5 against Sussex before rain forced the game to be abandoned after four overs of Sussex's reply.
The match will also see wicket keeper Phil Mustard reach the notable milestone of playing 200 List A matches in his career - 198 of them for Durham before his move to Gloucestershire last summer.
Squad:
Klinger (c), Mustard, Dent, Cockbain, van Buuren, Howell, J.Taylor, Noema-Barnett, Smith, Norwell, Liddle, M.Taylor, Miles.
Captain Michael Klinger said "We've had a chat about the Glamorgan performance and things we can improve on at Lord's. The two main things from my point of view were that I would have wanted a better start in the run chase - being 32-3 means you are coming from behind in the game rather than being ahead of it - and then having got ourselves back on track it was the responsibility of Graeme van Buuren and myself to get us over the line and we didn't do it."
Last season's meeting between the teams in this competition saw Paul Stirling hit a powerful century at the Brightside Ground to see Middlesex to victory by 7 wickets, and Stirling was one of the Middlesex's strong batting line up to look in good touch on Thursday against Sussex, when he made 71.
Former Gloucestershire all rounder James Franklin struck a brisk 69, and it's possible that two other players could face their former employers on Sunday. James Fuller was selected in the Middlesex squad but not the final eleven for the match with Sussex, while Tom Smith - who was at Lord's from 2010-2013 - scored some useful runs as Gloucestershire tried but failed to chase a revised target of 251 to beat Glamorgan.
It will be Gloucestershire's first visit to Lord's since their success in the 2015 final against Surrey and Klinger says the players are looking forward to going back.
"It was a full crowd for the final and an amazing atmosphere" Klinger added. "We're not expecting that on Sunday but wherever you are from, growing up you want to have the chance to play there. Even as you arrive, there is an aura about it."
"We couldn't be too critical of the boys for making errors on Thursday having come straight off a hard four day game with only one day's preparation for the first match. and everyone was in the same boat. We now have to scrap some wins over the next few games so that we are competitive at the end of the group stages."
Coverage :
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