Graeme van Buuren century sees Gloucestershire to victory
Gloucestershire 278 (van Buuren 108, Anwar Ali 61, Sanderson 3-34) beat Northamptonshire 255 (Taylor 112, McManus 54, T. Price 4-26, Singh Dale 4-58) by 23 runs
Graeme van Buuren posted his first Gloucestershire List-100 to information his crew to a hard-fought 23-run victory over Northants Steelbacks within the Metro Bank One-Day Cup at Cheltenham.
Returning after a month recovering from harm, the South African top-scored with a pugnacious 108 and helped stage a stand of 104 with Anwar Ali for the eighth wicket as the house aspect recovered from 142 for 7 to make 278 in 48.4 overs.
Recruited on a short-term abroad contract, Anwar weighed in with an entertaining 61 to redress the stability after seamer Ben Sanderson had claimed three wickets in 13 balls to make a multitude of Gloucestershire’s high order.
Ajeet Singh Dale then returned figures of 4 for 58, together with a burst of three wickets in 11 deliveries, and Tom Price took 4 for 26 as Steelbacks, who by no means recovered from the wreckage of 30 for five within the tenth, have been finally dismissed for 255 in 48.1 overs. Tom Taylor at the very least put up a combat, making a valiant effort to show the tide in a combative innings of 112 from 87 balls, whereas skipper Lewis McManus contributed 54 to place Gloucestershire celebrations on maintain.
Signing off from the Festival in type, Gloucestershire have now gained their opening two video games within the 50-over competitors to put down a marker on the high of Group B.
A big College Ground viewers of 4,000 roared their approval as Singh Dale and Price cooked up a storm with the brand new ball, 5 of Northamptonshire’s high six batsmen failing to make double figures because the reply bumped into fast bother. Price had Emilio Gay caught at mid-on after which bowled Ricardo Vasconcelos in his subsequent over from the College Lawn End to set nerves jangling within the away dressing room.
Singh Dale bowled Sam Whiteman and Luke Procter with the final two deliveries of the sixth over and, though Rob Keogh survived the hat-trick ball, he didn’t final lengthy thereafter, edging a catch behind to spark pandemonium within the marquees.
Only new abroad signing Prithvi Shaw proved proof against the chaos throughout him, the Mumbai batsman standing agency and hooking Singh Dale backward of sq. for a towering six to reveal his defiance. But not even he was as much as a process of this magnitude, and he finally perished for 33, making an attempt to hook Paul van Meekeren and conspiring to hit his wicket.
McManus led a spirited fightback, elevating a 60-ball half-century and dominating a stand of 86 in 14 overs with Taylor, solely to gap out to deep sq. leg off the bowling of Zafar with 139 nonetheless wanted from the ultimate 20 overs. Gloucestershire may nonetheless not afford to chill out whereas Taylor remained at giant and he went to his hundred through 80 balls, with 15 fours and two sixes.
The ninth wicket-stand was value 105, Northants required an extra 30 from 21 balls and Taylor was threatening to steal Gloucestershire’s thunder when Price had him caught at long-off to afford a tense crowd much-needed reduction. White was final man out, smashing a return catch to Price and departing for 29.
It had earlier proved an excellent toss to win, Sanderson as accounted for Gloucestershire’s openers in successive overs, teenager Joe Phillips and veteran Chris Dent each enjoying at deliveries outdoors off stump, providing catches behind and departing for 11 and a run-a-ball 30 respectively.
When Sanderson took an easy return catch to take away an out-of-sorts James Bracey for one, he boasted figures of three for 20 from six overs and the house aspect have been in bother at 54 for 3.
Van Buuren set about repairing the injury in partnership with the in-form Ollie Price, the duo elevating 50 from 52 balls as situations eased to counsel Gloucestershire may but attain a aggressive whole.
But there then adopted a slapstick sequence that noticed the hosts lurch from 105 for 3 to 142 for 7 and hand again the initiative to the Steelbacks. First, Price pushed a ball from Procter to long-on and, inspired by van Buuren, set off for a pointy single, solely to be completely undone as Keogh’s good choose up and throw on the run scored a direct hit and ran him out for 23.
Van Buuren then clipped a ball from Keogh to mid-on and tried a notional single, within the course of taking new batsman Jack Taylor fully without warning and inflicting him to be run him out for seven. Tom Price and Zafar Gohar then succumbed in fast succession to Keogh’s off breaks as wickets continued to fall in flurries.
Shouldering duty for making amends for the run outs, van Buuren eased to 50 from 60 balls and finally found a reliable ally within the type of Anwar, who introduced his appreciable expertise to bear.
Driving fluently all through, van Buuren struck 11 fours and a brace of sixes to succeed in his first Gloucestershire List-100 from 93 balls.
A wily practitioner of white-ball cricket, Anwar performed the supporting position to perfection, elevating fifty from 49 balls because the hundred partnership arrived within the forty fourth over. Although van Buuren was run out by Procter within the forty fourth over and Anwar fell to Freddie Heldreich’s wrist spin, having helped himself to a few fours and two sixes in an entertaining knock that comprised 55 balls, Gloucestershire already had a aggressive whole.