2nd XI match report
18/04/2011
Last week Gloucestershire 2nd XI began their 2011 season against the MCC YCs at High Wycombe.
Unfortunately Gloucestershire lost both the 1 day and 3 day game but there were some positive performances from the young squad.
In the one day game on Monday 11th April Gloucestershire were soon in trouble being reduced to 1 run for 2 wickets. A partnership between Uzi Qureshi and Michael Beard steadied the ship but were unable to kick on and posted a score that was below par on a good wicket. The main stay of the batting was Academy players Uzi Qureshi who made his maiden second team one day 50 and James Fuller was the pick of the bowling with good pace and hostility.
The 3 day game began on Tuesday 12th April and Gloucestershire batted first and got off to a reasonable start, putting on 21 for the first wicket when academy player Alex Spencer (returning for his first game for the club in over a year after suffering a knee injury that saw him miss last season) edge a full delivery and get caught behind.
There was then steady stream of wickets falling throughout on a wicket that offered help for the seam bowlers and again the main stay was Uzi Qureshi scoring 49 before edging a swinging delivery to the keeper. The side finished on 201 all out
The young bowling attack the stuck to good lines and length and consistently kept picking up wickets. 19 year old Jorden Price of Lansdown CC, playing in his first game, picked up four wickets and Academy player Josh Wingfield (who will be playing for Gloucester Winget this season) picked up 3 . Captain Jack Taylor bowled a solid 24 over spell conceding just over 50 runs and causing lots of problems for the batters. At one point the mcc were 150 for 8 but some good lower order hitting saw them take a first innings lead and finish on 209.
The batting didn’t perform quite as well in the second innings and only former academy player Hamza Taj made 50. In trouble at 90 for 6, a partnership of 30 between Sam Bracey (18 runs) and Lloyd Evans (15 runs) saw Gloucestershire start to get back in the game but both went in quick succession and resulted in being all out for 136.
The MCC YCs opening batters came out very aggressively and chanced their arm they struck the ball well and the bowling couldn’t quite match their performances in the first innings and the MCC YCs won comfortably.
Despite the result there were some good performances and will be looking forward to the next Gloucestershire 2nd XI game beginning on Tuesday 26th April against Glamorgan at the Swalec. Or to see the Academy in action before then they have fixtures against Bristol and Frocester on 23rd and 24th April respectively. More details to follow later this week.
