Gloucestershire v Warwickshire - Day 1 Report

19 August 2018

Gloucestershire ended the opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston with the home side 44 runs ahead with 8 wickets remaining.

After winning the toss, Gloucestershire Captain Chris Dent elected to bat first. Gloucestershire got off to a smooth start, with openers Dent and Hammond cruising to 52 without loss.

Experienced seamer Chris Wright had a day to remember for Warwickshire, ending with figures of five for 32. Gloucestershire lost all ten wickets for 75 runs in 27.4 overs.

Warwickshire, The Division One leaders replied well with openers  Will Rhodes and Dominic Sibley took them past Gloucestershire's score.

Gloucestershire openers Miles Hammond and Chris Dent put 50 on the board but then they fell in successive overs. Hammond edged Ryan Sidebottom behind and Dent (35, 61 balls, seven fours) was trapped lbw by Jeetan Patel.

A stand of 49 between James Bracey and Benny Howell took the score to 101 for two but Patel's ended the partnership, trapping Bracey LBW.

The opening pair for Warwickshire added 161 before Sibley inside-edged Higgins on to his pad and was caught at gully. Nightwatchman Wright soon fell lbw to Chris Liddle but Rhodes posted his third championship century of the season in the penultimate over of the day.

Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson said:

"We didn't play good cricket. Denty made the call to bat first and we batted well for a couple of hours but then there were some soft dismissals against a good bowling attack.

"We have a lot of young lads in the team and they have found out that you can't get away with that type of cricket against a very good side. Then we had another session and a half with the ball and it was the same thing - if you don't stick to a plan and do the   basics well you get punished. We have got a group of lads who are sat in the dressing-room now and realise that.

"They are disappointed, as you would expect, but we have to improve on that tomorrow. We have to reflect on the day and use it as a learning curve and see if we can put some of those things right."

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