van Buuren's late wickets hasten draw with Durham MCCU
30 March 2017
The left arm spin of Graeme van Buuren picked up four wickets - all of them lbw - as the fixture against Durham MCCU ended as a draw on the final day at the Brightside Ground.
The match - which had more than a whole day washed out in all - ended after the visitors lost their last four wickets for seven runs in 28 balls. They were finally dismissed for 238 in reply to Gloucestershire's 405-7 declared shortly before 5 o'clock, at which point the teams shook hands.
Listen to head coach Richard Dawson's post match thoughts here :
With the County Championship season only a week away, Gloucestershire will have been relieved to see the early morning rain clear to allow two sessions of play after an early lunch was taken at 12.30. It allowed all the front line bowlers to get some overs under their belts, Liam Norwell and David Payne opening up in the best conditions of the match.
Payne missed a caught and bowled chance to remove Marshall for 38, but it wasn't long before Chris Dent took a routine catch at second slip off the same bowler to send back the right hander without addition to his score.
Marshall's stand with Pollock for the Durham MCCU third wicket had been worth 88, and Pollock completed a 59 ball half century with two boundaries in Chris Liddle's first over of the day. In the same spell, however, Liddle removed him as Will Tavare stooped to take a low chance at leg gully.
Ollie Currill will have been happier with the control he showed in a five over spell from the Ashley Down Road End - albeit without success - and James McCollum and Durham MCCU captain Joe Cooke added 50 for the fifth wicket until Jack Taylor induced a lofted drive by Cooke (21) which he hit straight to Gareth Roderick at mid on ten minutes before tea.
When Graeme van Buuren trapped Graves lbw for a duck in the last over before the interval, there was a fourth different name in the wickets column on the scorecard.
Short spells remained the order of the day for the bowlers after tea and for 50 minutes the compact McCollum, along with McGrath, protected the Durham MCCU tail, McCollum completing his fifty from 93 balls with half a dozen boundaries. The return of Graeme van Buuren however, hastened the completion of the innings, and the match, as his first ball removed McGrath lbw for 12.
With no further addition to the score Liddle bowled McCollum for a patient 64 and van Buuren sent back Singh for a duck after another lbw appeal was upheld. The left arm spinner finished with 4-18 when Jahanfar became a fourth lbw victim, although after the match head coach Richard Dawson admitted the wickets came more from what he called ""stump to stump" accuracy more than any turn as Durham MCCU were dismissed for 238.
Gloucestershire now head to Worcester for a two day friendly starting on Monday, their final action before the tape goes up on the Championship season at Canterbury on April 7th.
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