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Surrey Match Preview: A win keeps us in quarter final contention - Miles

30 June 2015

Craig Miles believes Gloucestershire can get their bid to reach the NatWest T20 Blast quarter finals back on track with a win over Surrey on Wednesday night.

The team go into the game with just one win in their last five matches but are still two points ahead of their hosts.

Despite being beaten within three days in this week’s Championship clash between the sides, the 20-year-old believes a re-match in the shortest form of the game is the perfect way to bounce back.

He said:  “The change of format is almost like a fresh start and it will be good for the guys after a tough couple of days. We just need to block that out and start again.

“We are still right in the T20 and if we can beat Surrey hopefully that will get us back on a good run.”

Gloucestershire’s downturn in form has coincided with an ever-growing injury list. James Fuller (hand) is the latest player sidelined, joining fellow seamers Matt Taylor and David Payne. His injury means a return to the squad for Robbie Montgomery and Chris Dent and a first appearance in a Blast squad this season  for Liam Norwell.

Gloucestershire lost their last game to Sussex Sharks in dramatic fashion, conceding 71 runs in the last four overs as Luke Wright finished unbeaten on 111.

And Craig says the players will look to draw strength from the the pain of that defeat.

He said: “We are a really close-knit squad and we all have each other’s backs. We have talked about where we went wrong against Sussex and how we can get better both as a team and as individuals and hopefully we can put it into practice on Wednesday.

“We have heard the crowd could be 20,000 and the Sky cameras are there so we will try to enjoy it and put on a good show. Occasions like this are why you play the game and the boys are looking forward to it.”

Gloucestershire Team News

Squad: Michael Klinger (C), Hamish Marshall, Ian Cockbain, Peter Handscomb, Benny Howell, Geraint Jones (Wkt), Chris Dent, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Jack Taylor, Craig Miles, Robbie Montgomery, Tom Smith, Liam Norwell.

Surrey

Surrey will still be without a number of injured players tomorrow, including broken finger victim Steven Davies.

The home side have only six points and two wins from their eight South Group matches to date.

Young allrounder Zafar Ansari said: “Everyone is beating everyone else in the T20 this season so it’s ultra-competitive.

"There is still the potential for us to come through strongly in the second half of the group stage and we do have a lot of players in good form at the moment.”

Team News

Squad (Possible): Gareth Batty (capt) James Burke, Sam Curran, Matthew Dunn, Dean Elgar, Ben Foakes (wkt), Aneesh Kapil, Tim Linley, Azhar Mahmood, Jason Roy, Vikram Solanki, Freddie Van den Bergh, Gary Wilson

Key Man – Jason Roy

We picked him out before the LV= County Championship match and it is hard to find a more likely match-winner than the South African-born England batsman.

He top-scored with 61 off 47 balls in Surrey’s win over Glamorgan last Friday – his first game back after England duty.

Overall the destructive opener has made more than 2,000 T20 runs at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 140.

Last Time We Met

NatWest T20 Blast, July 18, 2014 at Cheltenham

Surrey 157-8 (Dilshan 36) (J Taylor 2-20)

Gloucestershire 152-7 (Klinger 45, Ansari 3-27)

Surrey won by six runs

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