CB40: Gloucestershire 192-1 beat Netherlands 191 by nine wickets
Gloucestershire professionally overcame the Netherlands at Bristol to move onto 16 points in Clydesdale Bank Group B. If Gloucestershire beat Northamptonshire at Wantage Road next Saturday Gloucestershire should be in the semi-finals.
Alex Gidman shared 192 with James Franklin to sail the hosts past their target in the Bristol sunshine. Gidman will be disappointed it has taken the poorest bowling attack to finally score a hundred against but the second-wicket partnership he contributed to settled any nerves of chasing a small target.
Nerves that would have risen when Will Porterfield was caught behind from the first ball of the Gloucestershire reply. But Gidman has done an excellent job opening the innings in 40 over cricket; Franklin played his usual calm knock and the home side had no trouble.
There wasn't much trouble in the field either, although the Netherlands were handily placed at 132-2. But a run out - so often the cause of a sizeable partnership coming unstuck - saw the visitors lose eight-for-59. Encouragingly, David Payne picked up three wickets and there were two for Ed Young.
Gloucestershire have played their way into contention for a semi-final - likely to be away against Somerset. If Essex lose either of their two remaining matches they cannot overhaul the 18 points Gloucestershire would total if they beat Northants. If Yorkshire lose to Essex next Saturday, Gloucestershire's net run rate would have to somehow slip below that of Yorkshire's for the West Country club to be denied second place.
Looks like Yorks are going to beat Northants tonight (tues) and will therefore qualify top of the group irrespective of the result of their match against Essex on Saturday.We need to beat northants ourselves and for Essex to lose one of their two remaining games in order to qualify.
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