Worrall shows batting value to add to new ball skills
20 April 2018
Overseas player Dan Worrall was signed as a new ball bowler, but the Australian proved a more than handy performer with the bat against Glamorgan on the first day of Championship cricket at the Brightside Ground.
Coming in at number nine, Worrall faced 80 balls and struck five fours in making 36 not out, beating his previous best score of 26 made for South Australia.
Gloucestershire's lower order rallied an innings which saw the top five batsmen in the pavilion with only 86 runs on the board. Ryan Higgins looked compact in reaching 43 before becoming one of five victims for de Lange while Kieran Noema-Barnett, who was dropped twice, batted for nearly two a half hours until he was trapped lbw for 46 by Lukas Carey three deliveries after the second new ball was taken.
South African de Lange took a Championship best 5-62 as Gloucestershire were dismissed for 236 which left Glamorgan eight overs to bat before stumps. At the close, they were 26 without loss.
Gloucestershire made one change to the side that beat Kent at Canterbury with Liam Norwell brought into the team in place of Craig Miles and it was no surprise that Glamorgan opted to field first.
The morning began in overcast conditions which hung around for the first hour, but it didn't stop both teams starting with positive intent. Lukas Carey's first ball was cracked to the point boundary by Benny Howell, and Carey's willingness to pitch the ball up saw him dismiss Chris Dent (6) in the third over, the Gloucestershire captain losing his off stump.
Carey also trapped Howell lbw for 11 in a lively but expensive opening spell, Gareth Roderick whipping one delivery past mid on for four and James Bracey driving well off the front foot. At the other end de Lange, bowling marginally shorter, proved harder to get away but there were still nine boundaries in the first hour until the introduction of medium pacer Lloyd and skipper Hogan applied the brake.
The experienced Australian, who has taken more than 500 first class wickets, removed Roderick for 17 with the aid of a smart low slip catch by Selman, which left Bracey and Jack Taylor with some rebuilding to do from 53-3. Little was available cheaply to either batsman off the back foot, but Bracey sweetly drove Lloyd past mid off and Taylor - either side of some bat repairs - gave steady support until de Lange, recalled ten minutes before lunch, struck twice either side of the interval.
Taylor appeared to be undone by a little extra pace and was bowled for nine, and then Bracey, having reached 34 in good style, edged the first ball at the resumption to Selman at second slip. It left de Lange on a hat trick but Higgins survived and for almost two hours the former Middlesex all rounder put together an innings which showed why Gloucestershire wanted to sign him.
Compact at the crease, Higgins brought up the 100 by punching Carey past point and neatly played anything he could work onto the leg side. Even the miserly Hogan was driven down the ground attempting a yorker. Graeme van Buuren was lbw to Hogan for 10 , and Gloucestershire could have been 128-7 if Selman hasn't spilled a chance given by Noema-Barnett off Selman when he'd made only four.
The powerful left hander then complimented Higgins in a stand of 44 for the seventh wicket until de Lange's second key intervention, intincing Higgins to swat his first ball of a new spell to Marsh at mid wicket. Dan Worrall defended until tea and after it supported Noema-Barnett in organised fashion until the second new ball was due. It was then that matters rapidly unfolded.
Noema-Barnett, needing only a boundary for his first Championship fifty since the match at Northampton last year, was lbw to Carey's third delivery with it, and de Lange removed Matt Taylor and Norwell in quick succession after Worrall had driven and loftily pulled the same bowler for four in one over. He was left 36 not out, and Glamorgan had a tricky session to see out.
Worrall and Matt Taylor found nothing to trouble Jack Murphy and David Lloyd, and two overs from Liam Norwell couldn't dislodge either of the Glamorgan openers, who will resume on Saturday morning at 26-0, 210 runs behind.
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