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We must settle quickly to win at Worcester - Klinger

24 August 2018

Captain Michael Klinger believes Gloucestershire need to sum up conditions early in the Vitality T20 Blast quarter final against Worcestershire at New Road on Saturday (3.00pm) if they are to reach Finals Day in the competition for the first time since 2007.

After finishing fourth in the South Group, Gloucestershire face Worcestershire for the first time since 2013 in a T20 fixture with Klinger positive about the chances of a better outcome than in Gloucestershire's last quarter final against Durham two seasons ago.

"Where you finished in the group really doesn't matter now, it comes down to who is better over three hours on Saturday" Klinger said. "Lancashire showed that in the first quarter final against Kent, who didn't adapt until it was too late to get a total around the 150 mark that they probably needed. If one team starts well, they can sometimes break the other one quite early so it's about settling quickly on the day."

The Worcestershire side is likely to include batsman Callum Ferguson - a good friend of Klinger's from six years at South Australia - and 20 year old Patrick Brown, a pace bowler from Lincolnshire who has taken 27 wickets.

"We've watched a lot of footage of him and he's clearly had a good tournament" Klinger added. "He's skilful but he's not had a high pressure game like this before so we'll see how he copes with that. You tend to get two types of wicket at Worcester. Most of them are very good, and scores of 190 this season show that, but sometimes you get the odd sluggish one and that's why winning or losing can be down to how you judge it."

With seven scores of 40 or above in the tournament, Klinger goes into the match as Gloucestershire's leading contributor with the bat. His tactical skills in the field have also helped to squeeze out some narrow wins when batting first, and he's looking forward to what promises to be an exciting occasion.

"If you look at our T20 season I think we were one of the best teams until the last two games when there were some holes in the side and we lost some momentum" said Klinger. "We've now had the chance to regroup and pick a well balanced team to go to Worcester and win."

"They are extremely strong, and finished top of the North group for a reason but it doesn't mean to say on our day we can't beat them. Other teams have done it in the group stages and we've analysed those games, looked at their weaknesses and tried to work out how we can exploit them."

Gloucestershire Squad:

Michael Klinger (c), Miles Hammond, Ian Cockbain, Benny Howell, Ryan Higgins, Jack Taylor, Gareth Roderick (wkt), Andrew Tye, Jake Lintott, David Payne, Matt Taylor, Chris Liddle, Chris Dent, George Drissell.

Coverage:

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

Ball by ball commentary is also available on the BBC Sport website.

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