MICHAEL Klinger wants Gloucestershire to finish off their season with a bang and reach the Royal London One-Day Cup final on Sunday when they travel north to face Yorkshire in the semi-final.
Aussie Klinger has flown back to his homeland for personal reasons which have been agreed between him and the county, but is making the long haul the other way to the UK in time to face the Tykes at Headingley.
The star batsman, who has been in tremendous form since arriving in the county from down under last May, has continued his top form which saw him as one of the top performers in the Big Bash in Australia last season.
And he helped Gloucestershire see off Hampshire in the quarter-final last week the one-day semi-final.
County captain Klinger said: “It is great. This group has been working so hard and I am so thrilled for everyone that we have got to a semi.
“When we had ten overs to go against Hampshire, we could have done the same and scored heavily at the back end. Jack Taylor player another fantastic innings at the end and Geraint Jones gets better with age.”
Indeed, the whole Gloucestershire county want to send Jones on his way into retirement with a trophy. Klinger added: “Geraint has had a fantastic career and it will be good to get to a final for him. So one more win and we are there but two more wins to get the job done.”
But it won’t be easy. He added: “We will probably go in as underdogs as we seem to do . We go into every game expecting to win and that will be the same in the semi-final.
“It has been a great year personally and also for the team so I hope we can finish off with a couple of wins.
“It is a shame we cannot have a home semi-final but I hope we can do Gloucestershire fans proud.”
Gloucestershire last won a trophy in 2004 when they took the C&G Trophy which was the fifth time they had won that particular one-day honour in its’ various previous sponsored guises.