One man band enough for Leicestershire

Day 1: Leicestershire 269 v Glos 12 - 0. 

Gloucestershire decided that, having given Leicestershire a pumping both home and away last season, they would be fine going into their match at Grace road with only one recognised bowler. With Saxelby, Miles and David Payne all injured, the bowling attack consisted of Liam Norwell and Matt Taylor giving away all the runs that Will Gidman had dried up at the other end.

Gidman again excelled, finishing with figures of 5 for 46 including bowling Greg Smith with the very first ball of the match. He now has 30 wickets for the season, and it is still only the start of June. At this stage Gidman must now be being seriously considered for Jon Lewis’ old job of carrying the drinks at test match venues around the land.

Liam Norwell apparently bowled with decent pace to take 3 for 76. Norwell is another young seamer who has struggled with injuries since emerging a few years ago. It would be nice to see him string a few games together as he has always seemed like a genuine wicket taker.

It will now be up to Dent and Klinger to finally score some runs this season. Having both excelled last term it has been a major disappointment to see neither of these two able to lay any sort of platform for the middle order to build upon. Dent has 210 runs at 21. Klinger has 176 runs at 17.

With a slightly dubious weather forecast around for the next few days Glos will have to bat positively if they want to push for victory. With the weather eliminating any chance of a result against Derbyshire last week it is vital that Glos take full advantage of playing one of the lesser sides in the division if they are serious about staying in the promotion mix. With both Worcestershire and Hampshire making a break for freedom at the top to lose out on the opportunity to claim victories against the two bottom placed teams would mean the Shire would be doing things the hard way.

Highlights from Day 1: