News

Skipper Dent praises attitude ahead of final match

23 September 2018

Head coach Richard Dawson has named an unchanged squad of 13 for the last game of the season in the County Championship at Derby on Monday (10.30am) with his captain, Chris Dent, commending the mental approach of the players in the final weeks of the season.

Dent goes into the match as the club's leading run scorer in four day cricket, having taken on the captaincy at the start of the summer with very little previous experience.

"I hoped the captaincy wouldn't impact on my form and I don't think it has" said Dent. "As a new captain I was bit unsure about everything I had to do, there were some tough pitches to bat on and I was out of form for a while, which happens sometimes but I have gained confidence through the season and getting runs in the last few weeks has changed how my season looks."

"Captaincy is something you learn as you do it and I feel I've got a lot out of this year. Usually you reach the end of the season and you're counting down the last few games but it hasn't felt like that with us. It would be nice to have four days hard cricket at Derby, finish with a win and then rest up knowing that we've done everything we could."

A win over Derbyshire would mean Gloucestershire would swap places with their last opponents of the summer, and possibly edge further up the table depending on results elsewhere, and Dent feels the final phase of the season has shown promise for 2019.

"I've been pleased with our form of late" he went on. "When we lost at Northampton we were all disappointed and challenged ourselves to get better personally and as a team."

"The batsmen have taken responsibility. Miles Hammond has shown he has the mentality to open the innings and James Bracey has done well especially as it has been different for him playing a whole season.  The bowlers have been fantastic too, Matt Taylor and Ryan Higgins have really progressed and that's what we ask, that everyone tries to get better."

Both Taylor (43) and Higgins (42) have an outside chance of reaching 50 Championship wickets for the first time this week, whilst Jack Taylor (2930) could pass 3000 first class runs in his career. Gloucestershire need nine points to match last season's Championship tally of 147, when they finished sixth for the third season in a row.

Squad:
Dent (c), Hammond, Bracey, Howell, Roderick, Cockbain, J.Taylor, Higgins, Charlesworth, Miles, Payne, M.Taylor, Drissell.

Coverage:
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket.
Ball by ball commentary is also available on the BBC Sport website. 

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