Notts discipline matched by recalled Roderick
9 June 2017
Gloucestershire wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick showed patient application for over four hours to even up the first day of this Division 2 Championship match at the Brightside Ground.
Roderick's first Championship appearance of the summer saw him justify his selection with an unbeaten innings of 88, and he shared a fifth wicket partnership of 83 with captain Phil Mustard (37) which dragged Gloucestershire's innings round from a jittery position at 77-4 shortly after lunch.
A further workmanlike stand of 65 for the seventh wicket between Roderick and Kieran Noema-Barnett (35) further redressed the balance as Gloucestershire reached 256-7 against the unbeaten league leaders at the close.
Listen to head coach Richard Dawson's close of play thoughts here:
George Hankins and Matt Taylor were left out from the squad of 13, which allowed Gareth Roderick and David Payne to come in after illness and injury respectively. Roderick, however, did not resume as skipper, with Phil Mustard on duty when Chris Read decided Nottinghamshire would field first without the need to spin a coin.
Notts almost struck in the first over, as 6'7 Luke Fletcher had a strong appeal for lbw against Cameron Bancroft turned down, and with his height and the shorter and more skiddy appproach of Luke Wood at the other end Gloucestershire's start was circumspect.
The first hour saw little beat the bat, and Bancroft and Chris Dent had to content themselves with a lot of watchful defence as they accumulated 37 careful runs.
Steven Mullaney, on as first change at the Ashley Down Road end, typified procedings by conceding only one scoring shot in his first five overs, although it was Harry Gurney who provided the first breakthrough as he trapped Chris Dent lbw for 27.
Head coach Richard Dawson had spoken before the game about coping with any pressure built up by the accuracy of the Nottinghamshire attack, and only half a dozen boundaries had been conceded when Will Tavare was deceived by a Luke Fletcher yorker and adjudged lbw for six on the stroke of lunch. Within half an hour of the resumption, Mustard had joined Roderick with some repair work to be done.
The damage had been caused by Brett Hutton, who turned Bancroft around and induced an edge to 'keeper Read in his first over of a new spell. The Australian had made 37, his second highest score of the season, and he was joined in the pavilion one ball later by Graeme van Burren, who was bowled off an inside edge.
Mustard avoided the hat trick and the rest of the afternoon session was about a determined partnership with Roderick rallying the innings. The left handed Mustard, who had scored 53 and 49 in the game at Trent Bridge, picked up early boundaries off Mullaney and Gurney while Roderick batted at his own measured pace, collecting what runs he could chiefly on the leg side.
The half century stand took 17 overs but the pair had more than doubled the score by tea, at which point two sessions batting seen Gloucestershire reach 159-4. Once again, however, two wickets soon after the resumption dragged back the scoreboard.
Mustard, having grafted for 37, edged the recalled Gurney to 'keeper Read in the first over from the Pavilion end, and Jack Taylor (5) gave Pujara a straight forward catch at point off Wood.
The applause which greeted Roderick's fifty, made from 115 balls with five fours, will have been music to the right hander's ears in his first Championship match of the season. It didn't contain any great volume of glorious stroke play, but it helped to stabilise the innings as well as build his own confidence and secure a batting point by the time the second new ball was taken.
14 overs remained on the day when Fletcher and Wood were recalled to share it although neither lasted long as Noema-Barnett, batting with increased freedom at number eight, accelerated the run rate on the day with a flurry of boundaries before being bowled by Gurney for 35. The pair had added 65, and Roderick had closed to within twelve runs of a century when stumps were drawn.
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