Bristol: Gautam Gambhir’s woeful form continued in County Cricket, as he yet again failed with his willow and was out for a duck against Gloucestershire in a first class match here on Tuesday. He batted for just eight deliveries before his weakness of not able to play the moving ball came into picture and spoiled his day when he was played on.
His scores in the four matches that he has played so far for Essex (two First-Class and two List A) read a horrible 31, 21, 2 and 0.
He has not even come close to scoring a 50 for his county side who took him in place of Hamish Rutherford and the biggest reason for that is his inability to play the fast bowling in the seaming conditions, which was one of the chief reasons why he was left out from the India team earlier this year.
The Delhi left-hander's technique against moving deliveries outside the sub-continent has always been under scanner.
Meanwhile, Piyush Chawla made his opportunities count as he smacked 58 runs and knitted a 107-run partnership with the bloke Alex Borrow, who scored 65 runs and was also the top-scorer for Somerset against Middlesex.
Chawla, who came at number nine, got his side out of the precarious situation where they were thinking reaching 250 or so, but his knock changed the story altogether.
Chawla, who was playing his second match for Somerset, didn't have an impreesive first match. However, he is looking forward to make the most of the opportunity. Apart from batting, his bowling will be under scanner.
Earlier in the day, Somerset won the toss and decided to bat. Marcus Trescothick and Nick Compton started brilliantly and added 79 runs for the opening stand. But Compton got dismissed after scoring 31 runs and was followed up by Trescothick who scored 64 runs.
Neil Dexter removed James Hildreth cheaply and Chris Jones, who added 58 run to the total. Ravi Patel gave couple of blows when he bagged the wickets of Craig Kieswetter and Craig Meschede. Somerset was in deep trouble as they were reduced to 178 for three to 211 for seven in no time but the strong reply from Barrow and Chawla’s got them back into the hunt