New Delhi: Every now and then domestic cricket throws up eye catching moments and one such incident happened during the opening day of a match of county cricket in Gloucestershire. This was during a County Championship Division Two match on Monday when Gloucestershire hosted Glamorgan in Cheltenham.
It was presumably a bowler’s wicket and after being put into bat, Glamorgan were shot out for 117 in 32.1 overs in their first innings. The only man with a half decent score against his name was Aneurin Donald who made 39. David Payne was the pick of the bowlers in the innings, bagging three wickets for 37 runs in 9.1 overs.
Gloucestershire replied with a score of 141 in 41.2 overs. Top scoring for them was Kieran Noema-Barnett who made 34 and the pick of the bowlers was Michael Hogan who had figures of three for 25 in 8.2 overs.
With three scalps from Liam Norwell, Glamorgan were reduced to 59 for five in a mere 17 overs in their second innings.
At the end of the day’s play, Glamorgan quickie Timm van der Gugten spoke to BBC and said, “It was an interesting day, I don’t think I’ve been involved in one quite like that before, but wickets seemed to fall consistently and it didn’t seem to stop.”
He further added, “It was one of those wickets where you didn’t feel you were ever in, hopefully we can put on a bit of a partnership with ‘Salts’ (Andrew Salter) and I, and get a bit of a lead, then we’ve still got some recognised batters in Chris Cooke and Graham Wagg. It’s actually a nice-looking wicket, it’s a strange one where one might nip back or bounce a bit more, or stay a little low, it’s got a bit of everything in it.”
Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson also spoke and said, “We are not going to use the pitch as an excuse for our batting. The players need to look at themselves and be honest about what caused them to get out. There is no suggestion that the wicket will be reported. Some of the bowling from both sides was excellent and we will reflect on how we went about our batting overnight.”
