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Lack of first innings runs frustrates Dawson

23 July 2016

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson pointed to a lack of runs in the first innings as a key factor in the Championship defeat to Leicestershire at the Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Festival.

Gloucestershire were left to defend a target of only 181, which Leicestershire achieved midway through the final session on the third day to win by six wickets.

"Scoreboard pressure is a huge thing in four day cricket" Dawson said. "If get two or three early wickets the pressure is on them, and you can try and squeeze like we did against Essex last week. It didn't go our way but I can't fault the effort with the bowling or the fielding, we scrapped hard all the way and the skills levels were good too, even into third spells for the bowlers. If we carry on like that for the rest of the season we'll be in a decent position."

A pivotal moment on the final day was umpire Graham Lloyd's decision not to give Paul Horton out to a catch by Will Tavare at second slip, and it provoked a long discussion with match liason officer Graham Cowdrey afterwards.

"From my viewpoint there was no doubt Will's caught the ball and I wanted to know how the decision was made,even though we couldn't do anything about it" Dawson went on. "You have to dust yourself down in this busy schedule and do what we always do - point out the things we did well and the things we need to improve on which are within our control."

"We haven't put a first innings score on the board in two matches at Cheltenham. Last week we bowled well and got ourselves out of a hole and this week we haven't managed to do that, but I'm not going to get down from just one loss."

Essex still lead Division 2, with Gloucestershire in third place and the , but the top four teams are separated by only 11 points. Kent, who have played a game more, are only two points further back.

"Two wins pushes you right up the table" Dawson concluded. "We've got a big period of one day cricket coming up, we'll get our heads around that before we head to Sussex in three weeks time. "

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