Gloucestershire head up the M5 today to take on Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston for a place in the end-of-season T20 Finals Day spectacular.

Finals Day takes place at Edgbaston a week tomorrow with Surrey, Sussex and Somerset having already secured their spots this week.

At the start of the season Gloucestershire, head coach Mark Alleyne told The Local Answer that reaching the knockout stages of the T20 competition was one of his aims for the campaign.

“I think finishing in the top four is a real target,” he said.

And that achievement – they finished behind Surrey, Sussex and Somerset – is all the more impressive because teams from the South Group have dominated the competition in recent times.

It’s a format that Gloucestershire have yet to win – they were runners-up back in 2007 – and now that they’ve reached the quarter-finals they’d certainly like to go one step further.

Warwickshire, who topped North Group after winning 10 of their 14 games, will undoubtedly start as favourites when play starts this evening.

They can call on young all-rounders Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley, who have both just been given their first England white-ball call-ups, while they also have Moeen Ali, ex-Gloucestershire pace bowler Craig Miles and in-form left-arm spinner Danny Briggs in their ranks.

Gloucestershire will be looking to the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Miles Hammond and Jack Bracey to get quick runs while left-arm seamers David Payne and Matt Taylor are two of the more experienced bowlers in county cricket.  

Should Gloucestershire win, it will be the second year in a row that all four teams for Finals Day are from the South Group.

Tonight’s game starts at 7pm.