University match - 1 April 2018
Venue: The Brightside Ground, Bristol
Gloucestershire v Cardiff MCCU
DAY 3:
Career best figures for Matt Taylor in draw with Cardiff MCCU
Matt Taylor recorded career best bowling figures in a first class game as Gloucestershire's three day match with Cardiff MCCU at the Brightside Ground ended in a draw.
After the middle day was lost to rain, Gloucestershire declared on their overnight total from Sunday evening (359-5), and Matt Taylor took advantage of an inexperienced batting line up and helpful conditions to take 5-15 in 14 overs.
Dismissed for 95 on their last visit here in 2015, Cardiff MCCU edged past that total this time thanks to a ninth wicket partnership between Andrew Brewster and Sam Pearce, who top scored with 35 before he was last out with the total on 101.
Gloucestershire opted against enforcing the follow-on, and instead used the remaining time for some extra batting practice, Chris Dent passing 7,000 career runs in first class cricket. At stumps, Gloucestershire were 140-2 in their second innings, 398 ahead and with George Hankins having made an unbeaten half century.
Well before the scheduled start, umpires Ian Blackwell and Jeff Evans held a long discussion about the conditions underfoot. Despite the sterling work of the groundstaff parts of the ground remained very wet, but on the provisio that they would abandon the game if the early overs badly damaged the playing area, the umpires agreed play could begin on time. With liberal sprinklings of sawdust in the bowlers footmarks, it proved a proactive call.
Matt Taylor and Craig Miles shared the new ball, and against a team with five players making their first class debuts - including all the top three in the batting order - Gloucestershire dominated the morning session, taking five wickets for only 45 runs in 28 overs.
A couple of LBW appeals had already been turned down when Taylor knocked out Allen's off stump in the seventh over via a bottom edge, and Woodland soon followed, caught at point by Miles. Taylor's figures for his opening spell were 6-4-5-2, and soon after Liddle's introduction at the Ashley Down Road end, Cardiff MCCU skipper Alex Milton gave Gareth Roderick a straight forward catch.
Opener Joe Ludlow had looked marginally more assured, and he had made exactly half the total when Taylor was recalled and Hankins held a juggling effort at third slip to leave the visitors 38-4. Miles, also back for a second spell, clean bowled former Gloucestershire wicket keeper Cameron Herring for nine in a morning where the procession of wickets was a steady one.
With three wickets already in his locker, Matt Taylor set a new career best in first class cricket with two LBW decisions against Machado and Evans soon after the resumption, in so doing taking five wickets in an innings for only the third time in his career.
Craig Miles began the match on 197 first class wickets, and when Turpin edged to Kieran Noema-Barnett at first slip, it looked as if he too would hit a personal milestone. It was Liddle and Noema-Barnett who mopped up the tail however, but not before Pearce, batting at number seven, played some pleasant strokes off the front foot as captain Chris Dent persisted with attacking fields throughout the Cardiff MCCU innings.
40 minutes remained until tea when the last wicket fell, and it was George Hankins who joined Dent for the final phase of the match as the pair - dismissed cheaply on Sunday - sought some valuable batting practice.
Dent soon passed 7,000 first class runs with a pull to long leg off Evans, and Hankins kept his captain company for 20 overs, adding 79 together until Dent retired out having made 45.
Hankins remained until the close, finishing 54 not out in a second innings total of 140-2 made in 35 overs, useful time in the middle with the first Championship fixture only ten days away.
At the close, head coach Richard Dawson said "We spoke about not giving batsmen the chance to play off the back foot. We asked the bowlers to be prepared to allow the drive, which they were, and I was pleased with the control we showed and the length we bowled."
Gloucestershire play Somerset in a 50 over match at the Brightside Ground on Wednesday April 4th. Admission is free.
DAY 2:
Play was abandoned 90 minutes before the start on day two of Gloucestershire's fixture against Cardiff MCCU
at the Brightside Ground.
Persistent overnight rain had left the outfield in an unplayable condition and it didn't take long for
umpires Ian Blackwell and Jeff Evans to make a decision regarding prospects for the day.
The third and final day is scheduled to start on Tuesday at 11.00 with Gloucestershire currently 359-5 in their first innings.
DAY 1:
HOWELL AND RODERICK BANK RUNS BEFORE THE RAIN
Two contrasting innings from Gareth Roderick and Benny Howell dominated the Gloucestershire card on the first day of the season against Cardiff MCCU at a chilly Brightside Ground.
Howell, who opened the batting with new captain Chris Dent, made a brisk 89 while Roderick, much more patient initially, went on to accumulate 85 before he retired at the tea interval.
When rain forced an early conclusion to affairs, Gloucestershire had reached 359-5 from 80 overs, Graeme van Buuren (52), Jack Taylor and Ryan Higgins also making useful contributions.
The Cardiff MCCU captain Alex Milton asked Gloucestershire to bat when he won the toss, and Benny Howell registered the first boundary of the summer as he cracked a loosener from Evans to the cover boundary.
Brewster and Zimbabwe born Evans shared the new ball, and the latter was to be Cardiff MCCU's main bowler on the day, taking four wickets across four spells and making the first breakthrough by removing new Gloucestershire skipper Chris Dent (7), caught at slip by Woodland with the score on 32. Around him however, five other bowlers went unrewarded.
It was a day for sweaters as well as the visitors' crimson caps, and as Roderick joined Howell the play soon developed a distinctive pattern, Howell quickly latching onto anything wide or short. A pie chart showing where his runs were scored would have been heavily coloured between extra cover and backward point.
His half century was completed in 66 balls with 11 boundaries, whilst at the other end Roderick occupied the crease as if it was a Championship fixture, content to play a passive role in a century stand where Howell was firmly the aggressor. Clearly enjoying himself, Howell struck the only six of the day when leg spinner Pearce was introduced 20 minutes short of lunch.
At that point Roderick's 21 not out had taken 90 deliveries, and he'd added only two more runs when he missed at slip in Evans' first spell after the resumption. The bowler's disappointment was to prove short lived however, as Howell edged to a diving Cameron Herring behind the stumps for 89 and George Hankins (9) was bowled before he had settled.
Jack Taylor - promoted to number five in a new look middle order - then joined Roderick in a more evenly balanced stand that occupied much of the afternoon, although he too was dropped when on 16, medium pacer Pike being the unlucky bowler.
The new vice captain struck eight boundaries including a cut off Turpin that took Gloucestershire past 200, and he added 80 with Roderick when, on 41, he gave the Herring a second catch off Evans.
By this stage Roderick was more fluent. He had grafted a half century from 142 deliveries with seven fours, but then scored at a run a ball until tea when he retired on 85, allowing Ryan Higgins and Graeme van Burren the chance to spend some time in the middle, albeit in increasingly gloomy light.
Neither allowed the Cardiff MCCU bowlers, now with an old ball, time to settle, and runs came rapidly with the pair adding 89 in 14 overs. Higgins made 43 in even time and Van Buuren continued the strong back foot theme to the day, with nine boundaries in his innings of 52 until Woodland pouched a second slip catch shortly before the rain intervened an hour before the scheduled close.