http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KS-Williamson-c1813’ ton steers Gloucestershire to a strong position against Leicestershire
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013. The visitors reached 177 runs for the loss of just three wickets on a rain interrupted
day, courtesy a brilliant ton by New Zealand’s promising youngster, Kane Williamson.
The pitch looked perfect for batting and this forced the visitors’ captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alex-Gidman-c984, to bat first after winning the toss. However, the start to the innings put the team on the back foot and the decision appeared to be a wrong one.
Gloucestershire’s opener, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ian-Andrew-Cockbain-c63756, was dismissed in the very first over of the match, without scoring a single run. He followed an away swinging ball from the home team’s skipper, Mathew Hoggard, which took the outside edge. The ball landed safely in
the hands of the wicketkeeper, Paul Dixey, who didn’t make any mistake behind the stumps.
This brought Williamson in the middle, who joined opening batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Richard-George-Coughtrie-c85003. The pair batted sensibly, but they were given a tough time by Hoggard, as the ball did some tricks in the first hour of play.
However, the good thing for the visitors was that their batsmen didn’t throw wickets away and grew in confidence once the ball lost its shine. Coughtrie was sent back to the pavilion after a fighting knock of 26 runs from 84 balls. He would have liked to
carry onto make a big one for his team, but was undone by a beautiful in-swinger by Hoggard, which took the middle-stump out of the ground.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Chris-Taylor-c1253 looked good in the middle, as he timed two lovely boundaries in the start of his innings, but was unable to make an impression. He was dismissed after adding just nine runs to the total and the visitors were under pressure with three wickets
down for just 88 runs on the board.
Two quick wickets didn’t pressurise Williamson, as he continued to bat sensibly. He was unable to make an impact in the previous two matches for his team, with a highest score of just 26 runs. However, the promising youngster didn’t miss out this time around,
scoring a brilliant 102 runs off 155 balls.
The Kiwi batsman had some luck in the earlier part of his innings, as he was troubled by the bowlers. He edged the ball on a couple of times, but the ball flew between the slips. Williamson’s start was slow, but his second fifty came off just 58 deliveries
and was unbeaten when the umpires called the day-off.
Gidman also offered good support to the Kiwi player, scoring an unbeaten 32 runs in an 89-run stand for the fourth wicket.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Leicestershire-c807’s skipper was the pick of the bowlers for his team, dismissing two batsmen in the innings.
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