Cricket Dawson: We mustn’t put too much pressure on ourselves
It is a huge bonus just to have some cricket in this extraordinary year and I want them to play with freedom against Northants
RICHARD Dawson will urge his Gloucestershire players to learn from bitter experience when facing Northamptonshire Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals tomorrow.
The match at the Bristol County Ground, starting at 2pm, will be the fourth time in five seasons that the head coach has seen his side compete in the knockout stage of the T20 competition.
But, having established themselves among the most consistent teams in the country in Blast group matches, Gloucestershire have lost their last three quarter-finals, to Durham (2016), Worcestershire (2018) and Derbyshire last season.
Now, after another successful group campaign, which brought seven wins from ten games, including a double over arch-rivals Somerset, Dawson is desperate to take part in Finals Day, to be held at Edgbaston on Saturday.
He said: “For whatever reason, we have not reproduced our form in the group games when reaching the quarter-finals.
“We were outplayed by Derbyshire last year, which was very disappointing. But the players are now a year more experienced and it’s important we don’t put too much pressure on ourselves.
“Maybe that has happened in the past. But it is a huge bonus just to have some cricket in this extraordinary year and I want them to play with freedom against Northants.
“We have had some outstanding individual performances in the Blast this season, but the most positive common factor has been that seven or eight players have been making significant contributions to most games.”
Gloucestershire will go into today’s game as favourites, having won the Central Group, four points ahead of the Steelbacks, who finished runners-up.
In Ian Cockbain, the hosts boast one of the most successful batsmen in the competition. The 33-yearold Merseysider has proved himself a matchwinner in several group fixtures, accumulating 369 runs at an average of 46.12. with 27 fours and 22 sixes.
Chris Dent also has more than 300 group runs to his credit. And when it comes to the bowling department, Gloucestershire have another player riding high in the rankings.
Left-arm spinner Tom Smith is joint leading wicket-taker in the competition with 14 and has the third best economy rate at 5.91 runs an over.
With Benny Howell fit again after more than a year battling injury problems and Graeme van Buuren proving effective with the ball this summer, Gloucestershire are well placed to stifle opposing batsmen in mid-innings, a trademark of their T20 performances in recent years.
They beat Northants by 35 runs in the group match at Northampton, having had the corresponding fixture, washed out at Bristol.
But Dawson does not underestimate the task of overcoming a Steelbacks team, who bounced back from four successive group defeats to beat Birmingham Bears in their final match and clinch qualification.
“Northants have a powerful batting line-up and some smart bowlers,” he said. “They pose a very big threat and we will need to be on our game.”
Gloucestershire used only 14 players over the course of ten group games. All are fit for selection and Dawson’s only selection decision is whether to play an extra seamer at the expense of a batsman.
He said: “There has been a fair bit of rain about, which could affect conditions, and we will leave naming a line-up until we have assessed things just before the game.” Gloucestershire (from): Hammond, Dent, Cockbain, Bracey (wkt), Higgins, van Buuren, J Taylor (capt), Howell, Smith, Payne, Shaw, Scott, M Taylor, G Hankins.