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Match Preview - Glamorgan v Gloucestershire

31 July 2019

With two out of three Vitality Blast games lost to adverse weather conditions, Gloucestershire will be looking to capitalise on what appears to be a clear Thursday in Cardiff.

Gloucestershire travel to Sophia Gardens for their second Vitality Blast match against Glamorgan this season, the first ending in a no result after heavy rain struck Cheltenham College with the Welsh side flagging on 96/8.

Head Coach Richard Dawson is wary of the opposition despite how the first fixture between the two sides was going:

“They’ve added a couple of players to their squad and they’ve played a bit more cricket since then so I’m not expecting it to go quite as well as it was at Cheltenham. They have dangerous players and any one of them can change the shape of a game, so we know it’s going to be a tough proposition.

“It’s the type of competition where you only need one victory and then you can get on a roll. They did that in the One-Day cup, they started a bit shakily and then put a good run of games together so it’s not going to be easy.”

The players will take great confidence from their first outing against Glamorgan despite the no result. Benny Howell took five-for while Tye and Payne also chipped in with one wicket each.

The Gloucestershire batsmen have only had one opportunity to step to the middle so far in this year’s competition. Miles Hammond top-scoring with an impressive 63 off 35. Benny Howell and Jack Taylor put together a partnership of 45 for the sixth wicket showcasing Gloucestershire’s depth in batting.

“What we do have is power batsmen all the way down to number eight,” Dawson said. “If we can make a base and get a good start from our openers in the powerplay, we are capable of getting 180/190. With players like Maxy, Coey and Hammo that can build that base, we can certainly get some high scores with others chipping in and building big partnerships.”

Gloucestershire’s 13-man squad travelling to Cardiff:

Klinger, Hammond, Cockbain, Bracey, Higgins, J Taylor, Howell, Tye, Smith, van Buuren, Payne, G Hankins, Liddle.

Glamorgan’s overseas signing, Fakhar Zaman has now played two Vitality Blast games but has only managed 17 runs off 30 balls opening the batting.

The Welsh side have struggled with the bat so far in the T20 competition. Only three players have surpassed 50 runs across all four matches, David Lloyd being the standout performer for them.

Glamorgan’s 13-man squad for tomorrow:

Ingram, Lloyd, Fakhar, Lawlor, Root, Taylor, Morgan, Cooke, Wagg, Douthwaite, Salter, de Lange, Carey

Sophia Gardens, which has played host to Somerset and Middlesex has seen over 13,000 spectators setting a new Club record for Glamorgan for attendance of the opening two games of the Vitality Blast. Gloucestershire have also played terrific cricket in front of two sold out crowds at Cheltenham College but Richard Dawson insists that location doesn’t matter:

“We’re motivated by the fact that we want to stay at the top end of the table. It’s irrelevant where we play cricket, it was nice to play at Cheltenham and that was a great two weeks but we move on to the next challenge.”

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