We Should Have Bowled Better - Bracewell
11 September 2014
John Bracewell was unhappy with Gloucestershire’s bowling as Leicestershire extended their first innings to 565 all out on the third day of the LV=County Championship match at the Bristol County Ground.
While acknowledging that wickets were hard to come by on an excellent batting pitch, the club’s director of cricket felt more pressure should have been applied with a first innings total of 646 on the board.
Niall O’Brien hit a run-a-ball century and Ned Eckersley made 119 after Leicestershire had begun the day on 246-2, still requiring 251 to avoid following on.
John told this website: “We brought them into the match quite quickly by leaking runs at one end and it cost us the right to set up a decent finish.
“Will Gidman was unable to bowl because of a sore muscle in his front shin, but I expected better from some of the others. Leicestershire left-handed batsmen should have been under threat from our left-arm spinners, but they weren’t.
“Liam Norwell charged in and Craig Miles also did his best to apply the team plan, but our slow bowlers were disappointing.
“We have had to work hard for our wickets all season here and, while this pitch is particularly good, we should have applied more pressure.
“We needed to set our opponents 400 on the final day at least because the outfield is very quick and that hasn’t prove possible because we lost control of the game in the afternoon session in particular.”
By the close Gloucestershire had made 23-1 in their second innings and lead by 104 going into the final day.
For more details on Day Three click on Cricket and then Match Reports.
