MICHAEL Klinger believes Gloucestershire are only a few fine tweaks from being a successful T20 side and wants his team to prove it against Hampshire at Cheltenham tomorrow afternoon.

The skipper and leading run-maker in this season’s NatWest Blast competition was powerless to prevent leaders Kent sewing up qualification for the quarter-finals with a narrow win at the College Ground yesterday.

But Gloucestershire ran them close and Klinger, whose innings of 75 took his run tally in ten South Group games to 653 at an average of 108.83, saw enough to convince him the team were on the right track.

He said: “It’s good that our last two group games are against Hampshire and Glamorgan, who are both in the mix to reach the knock-out stage. We have a good net run rate and if we can get two wins we might scrape in ourselves.

“We keep coming out on the wrong side of tight games. T20 is a game of fine margins and we are very nearly where we want to be.

“Our fielding was excellent against Kent and we bowled well for the majority of their innings. It is just at the death that we are falling short and I thought Mitchell Claydon and Matt Coles gave our bowlers a lesson in how to deliver the final overs.

“I hope they watched and learned because the have the last two games and the whole of the winter to work on their skills. If they do I think the team will become very competitive.

“We know Hampshire have some very dangerous batsmen so we are going to have to be on our game to beat them. It will be another great test for us.”

Gloucestershire will be without T20 opener Hamish Marshall, who aggravated a calf injury in the defeat by Kent and had to retire hurt after racing to 11 not out in the second over of his side’s innings.

Klinger admitted: “Losing Hamish is a big blow because he has been in fantastic T20 form for us. He has been troubled by a calf muscle for some time and now I would expect him to be out for three or four weeks.”

Chris Dent is the most likely replacement, although Klinger says Will Tavare and Kieran Noema-Barnett will also come into contention.