Skipper Jack Taylor admits Gloucestershire were outplayed by dominant Steelbacks
Gloucestershire skipper Jack Taylor admitted his side were 'short in all three parts of the game' as they suffered an eight-wicket defeat to Northants Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The west country side must be sick of the sight of Northants, as they have now suffered five defeats against them already this summer, twice in the County Championship and three times in the Blast.
Gloucestershire were always up against it when they slumped to 20 for three after opting to bat first, and although they rallied to 104 for three thanks to an excellent 68 from Ben Charlesworth, a late clatter of wickets saw them bowled out for 152.
That was never likely to be enough on a decent pitch surrounded by a lightning quick outfield, and so it proved as David Willey's 47 not out saw a cautious Steelbacks home with 14 balls to spare.
“It was disappointing that we were probably short in all three parts of the game," said Taylor. "We lost some early wickets, which wasn't ideal.
"Myself and Ben Charlesworth put a partnership together, and we got to a position after 11 or 12 overs where we were in a decent spot.
"We were talking 170, 180 because it wasn't a very easy pitch to be honest.
"It was obviously, quick scoring outfield and at the end there, we're probably 20 runs short.
"We were really happy to bat first a we know in knockout cricket that if you can get a score on the board, around par or plus, which we thought was 170, that would be testing, and we did scrap as well as we could.
"They out-fielded us, and we just weren't able to take a bang-bang couple of wickets at any point."
And he aded: "There were a couple of decisions that probably could have gone the other way, and some dismissals that we're disappointed with.
"But I think we were 20 short.
"You know, we gave it everything, and with the ball we didn't get our rewards.
"I thought we bowled alright. On other days you may pick up some wickets, but I thought they played well and played the situation and got over the line."
Asked if they were wary of taking on a Northants side they had already lost four to times, Taylor said: “We actually looked at it the other way, to be honest.
"We were like 'they’ve beaten us in the two group games and the two Championship games, let's go on and beat them in the game where it really counts', and we just weren't quite good enough."
Qutotes courtesy of Jeremy Blackmore