Thirteen years later, Gloucestershire return to Finals Day with a clinical swagger

NICK FRIEND: As accomplished a knockout performance as you might wish to find, completed with a swagger that defied any quarter-final nerves

Gloucestershire have waited some time for this. It was 13 years ago when Jon Lewis led his side on T20 Blast Finals Day in 2007.

So long ago was that occasion that Alex Gidman, part of the middle order in those days, has since returned to contest the final as Worcestershire’s head coach.

Of the 22 men involved as Kent successfully chased Gloucestershire’s total with three balls to spare, only Joe Denly, Darren Stevens and Lasith Malinga are still playing.

And so, while the Bristol faithful have had to sit patiently, the evidence would suggest that a return to Edgbaston has been in the offing. Quarter-finals have become a regular occurrence, but so too have quarter-final defeats – three in the last four years, including a home defeat against Derbyshire in 2019.

On a beautiful October afternoon in Bristol, that recent progress was evident in a fielding display that demonstrated every inch of the Gloucestershire team fashioned by Richard Dawson in recent years, before a clinical batting effort that completed an annihilation.

From the moment that Northamptonshire captain Josh Cobb invited the home side to field, the hosts dominated, strolling to an eighth win in nine games.

Ahead of the game, Tom Smith, Benny Howell and Gareth Roderick had spoken candidly of their off-field struggles in recent years and the role of the Professional Cricketers’ Trust in assisting them through significant adversity. Smith’s wife passed away in 2018 and Roderick lost his father to suicide a year earlier, while Howell has been helped in learning to live with ADHD.

Smith highlighted a “unique dressing room” bound together as a collective by individual hardship. “As a group of players,” he said, “everyone is extremely emotionally intelligent – they’ve gone through stuff, they’ve supported all of us.

“We’re one big family and to survive all of that as a group of players – generally most of us have been there the whole time throughout all of those scenarios – it’s a very loving environment.”

^{Gloucestershire were clinical from the first over to the last}

That sense of togetherness was evident in the field. If there is a benefit to watching T20 cricket in empty stadia, then it is present in the capacity to hear almost everything in an otherwise bereft amphitheatre. Gloucestershire were at one with a singular objective: ending a hoodoo that extends beyond the last decade.

As poorly as Northants batted on a slow surface, Gloucestershire were every bit as excellent in their own task. It says a lot about the environment left behind upon his retirement by former captain Michael Klinger that his mark feels indelibly stamped on a side inherited by Jack Taylor.

The bowling attack is well balanced, put together meticulously: Josh Shaw’s unheralded bustling seamers in combination with the left-arm excellence of David Payne, a taker of 110 Blast scalps.

Until today, Smith – the eighth-highest wicket-taker in the competition’s history – was the joint most-successful bowler in this year’s tournament. He went wicketless but fellow left-arm spinner Graeme van Buuren clean bowled Richard Levi and Saif Zaib. Between the pair, they bowled eight overs for 41.

In Howell and Ryan Higgins, the middle and latter overs were dealt with – two medium-pacers but of entirely different skillsets.

Howell is somewhat unique, with an rare bag of tricks. Having missed 13 months through injury, perhaps it was written for his season to be extended until Finals Day. This was just his fourth game back and he had admitted previously that months on the sidelines proved a difficult mental challenge.

“There were some dark moments during lockdown but hopefully we're coming through the other side of that,” he reflected.

“I know there's no crowds or anything like that but just to be back playing is incredible, it's been so long. For me, even when I'm not training or playing I love going out with the ball and just bowling into a net – as my team-mates know, I'm a bit obsessed with that sort of thing.

“I found it very hard when I was injured not being able to do that. Now being back and playing, it's been amazing.”

He was at his mysterious best on a pitch that assisted his range of variations, castling Cobb with a quicker delivery, before getting the better of Rob Keogh’s attempted ramp shot with one of his many slower balls.

Another from his armoury did for Adam Rossington, who was early on a flick through the legside and chipped to Higgins at midwicket. He ended with 3 for 16 from his four overs, a timely starring role for a terrific all-round cricketer.

“That's the stuff dreams are made of,” he mused afterwards. “We are over the moon to be involved in Finals Day, but we are going there to win. We will aim to play with freedom, as we have done since the start of the competition, and see where it takes us.”

^{Benny Howell starred with the ball for the hosts}

It was a surprise of sorts that Taylor turned to Higgins at all, given that Payne and Shaw had three spare overs held back between them. However, the former Middlesex man claimed three wickets of his own to complete the task.

That, really, was job done. As accomplished a knockout performance as you might wish to find, completed with a swagger that defied any quarter-final nerves.

With the bat, Gloucestershire were equally resourceful; Chris Dent didn’t play a T20 match between July 2016 and August 2020, but the red-ball captain has emerged as a star of this campaign.

Miles Hammond began life predominantly as an off-spinner but reinvented himself as an opener after battling the yips. It had been three years since he had played a first team game for Gloucestershire when Klinger drafted him in to open the batting alongside him in a T20 game against Somerset in 2018. He has hardly missed one since.

Even James Bracey, a member of England’s Test group this summer, only made his Blast debut last year. Ian Cockbain, whose fine campaign continued with an unbeaten 30, told The Cricketer ahead of the tournament of his frustrations at having flown under the radar throughout a stellar white-ball career.

“It’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow, to be honest,” he said. “I look at the guys above me and even some of the guys who haven’t scored as many runs as me. They get higher honours or in the franchises. It does feel frustrating sometimes.”

With 399 runs at an average of 49.87 and a strike rate of 171.98, that might be about to change. This win wrapped up a terrific week for the 33-year-old, who signed a new contract on Wednesday. No one has hit more sixes, even if he dealt solely in fours today.

Gloucestershire were so clinical that they had matched Northants’ boundary haul inside four overs. They hit 19 to the visitors’ seven. Hit more boundaries in a T20 match and you tend to come out on top; treble their total and you won’t go far wrong.

Higgins hit four in succession to put the finishing touches to a terrific shellacking, with the smattering of spectators in the overhanging apartments offering a richly merited round of applause.

For the first time in 13 years, Gloucestershire’s “one big family” will be back at Finals Day, and they could hardly have been more convincing.

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