HAMISH MARSHALL produced a good all-round performance to help Gloucestershire keep their County Championship promotion hopes alive and then played down his increasingly influential role with the ball.

Known as a batsman who can bowl the occasional medium-pace spell, Marshall is changing that perception with county members after he took 4-52 to help polish off Surrey by an innings and one run in the Division Two clash last week, while he recently took a career-best 4-22 in the defeat at Leicestershire.

Like most the middle order, Marshall has struggled for form with the bat in the second half of the season before hitting 82 in Gloucestershire’s first innings total of 582-7 declared at Bristol. He has now scored 717 runs at 34.15 this season but more surprisingly he leads the county’s bowling averages with 14 wickets at 18.35 apiece.

However, the 30-year-old insists he doesn’t see himself as an all-rounder and instead praised the other bowlers for helping him do some damage.

“Giddo’s (captain Alex Gidman) asked me to do a bit of a holding role and I managed to pick up a few wickets, but certainly that comes from pressure at the other end which has given me the opportunity of picking up scalps,” Marshall told the Gazette.

“I’m certainly a batsman, my batting’s my trade and my bowling’s my enjoyment at the moment - as long as I can do a job then great.

“It’s something I’ve had fun with but not something I’ve taken very seriously over my career so I’m just enjoying having a bowl and trying to do the job I’m asked to do and at the moment I’m pulling it off.

“I do rely on the swing at my pace and at the moment there’s a bit of swing there which is nice.”

Marshall certainly made the most of the cloudy, swing-friendly conditions on the final day against Surrey, who were eventually bowled out for 339 in their second innings after former England international Chris Schofield frustrated Gloucestershire with 71, sharing big partnerships with Alex Tudor (33) and debutant Rangana Herath (52*) down the order.

The victory was set up on days two and three when Gloucestershire bowled Surrey out for 183, before Gidman put his side in control with a career-best 176 and Taylor also scored a valuable 111 off just 102 balls.

Gloucestershire moved up to third, one point behind second-placed Northamptonshire, and Marshall believes they are right back in the title race.

He also says that he and the other batsmen must carry on from where they left off against Surrey in the final two games.

“We know a few teams have got games in hand but certainly for us that 22 points helps a lot so we need to continue playing attacking and ruthless cricket to finish in the top two,” he said.

“It was a clinical batting performance but it was coming off some bad performances.

“In the next two games we’ve got to produce those sort of runs again and try and get the consistency into our game that we desperately need to win games.”

Gloucestershire visit promotion rivals Glamorgan in a County Championship match starting next Wednesday but first, they are in action against Yorkshire in a floodlit Pro40 Division One match at Headingly this evening (4.40pm).