Gloucestershire v Leicestershire
LV=County Championship Division Two
Day One. At Bristol.
By Richard Latham
Alex Gidman was dismissed one short of what would have been the first LV=County Championship century by a Gloucestershire player this season as his team ran up 314-6 on the opening day against Leicestershire.
But there was plenty of consolation for the skipper in a much improved home display by his team, who gained their first batting points at the County Ground at the third attempt.
Another heavy clatter of wickets looked on the cards when Matthew Hoggard won the toss and took two wickets in his first four overs after inviting Gloucestershire to bat.
It was 8-2 when Will Porterfield was caught in the slips for a duck and Jonathan Batty was pinned lbw for six. But Chris Dent (34) helped Hamish Marshall (86) overcome the new ball and from then on it was the home side’s day.
Gidman then led from the front, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 138 with Marshall, who also looked set for a century.
Hoggard must have hoped for better, having put Gloucestershire in on a green looking pitch. The Leicestershire captain claimed 3-49 from 19 overs, but could not stop the home side claiming three batting points, with Chris Taylor contributing an attractive 62.
A combined total of 43 wickets had fallen on the first days of the previous two Championship games at Bristol, both of which ended in defeat for Gloucestershire, neither yielding a single batting point to either team.
England Under-19 player Dent has been used to walking out with his side in a state of adversity this season and not for the first time he showed a good temperament to add 66 for the third wicket with Marshall.
Dent’s 64-ball innings featured 5 fours and meant the new ball had been seen off by the time he fell lbw on the back foot to Claude Henderson in the second over sent down by the slow left-arm spinner.
It was 82-3 at lunch. The afternoon session saw Marshall reach his half-century off 101 balls, with 8 fours, and Gidman follow suit from 91 deliveries, with seven boundaries.
Marshall played with increasing confidence and had every right to feel frustrated when playing down the wrong line to Andrew Harris and departing lbw when looking set for three figures.
Gidman was on 74 when tea was taken at 212 for four. But, having played with great fluency and murdered anything dropped short, he began to look more uncertain as he approached his hundred.
Hoggard may have sensed that as he took the second new ball. He pitched the second delivery with it short and Gidman top-edged a pull shot to Harris, who took a good tumbling catch running in from fine leg.
The crestfallen Gidman had faced 183 balls and hit 10 fours. But Taylor ensured his good work did not go to waste as he accelerated towards a fluent half-century off 90 balls, with 9 fours before unluckily gloving a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Tim New off Nathan Buck.
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