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“I’ll be happy if we just keep on playing the way we have been" - Dawson

1 August 2018

Richard Dawson believes a sequence of three games on the road in the space of five days will provide a major test of Gloucestershire’s potential to win the Vitality Blast.

Four wins and a no-result from five fixtures since defeat in their opening match have stamped Dawson’s men as live contenders for the T20 competition.

The victory over Glamorgan at Cheltenham last Friday put them top of the South Group. Next up is Sussex at Hove (Weds) followed quickly by Glamorgan at Cardiff on Friday and Kent at Canterbury on Sunday.

Dawson said: “Things can change very quickly with so many games over such a short period and we have to maintain the standards we have set since losing to Somerset at Taunton.

“We didn’t hold our catches that night, but we took several really good ones against Glamorgan in the last match and it makes such a difference.

“Other aspects of our game have improved and we now have a squad of confident players, with options if we want to play an extra seamer or spinner.

“I’ll be happy if we just keep on playing the way we have been. But facing three very good sides away from home will certainly be tough.”

The win over Glamorgan was built around skipper Michael Klinger’s 77 not out and Andrew Tye’s excellent figures of three for 17 from four overs.

Dawson insists he wouldn’t swap his two overseas T20 players for those at any other county.

“It’s not just what Maxy and AJ give us on the pitch,” he said. “They are both leaders who add a tremendous amount to our dressing room.

“AJ was outstanding against Glamorgan, while Michael showed his experience when we were struggling to score quickly in the middle overs of our innings and was still there at the end to launch a late assault that took us to a good score.

“But one of the good things about our group campaign so far is that a lot of players, rather than one or two, have been contributing. When some have not been available, others have stepped up to the plate.”

Gloucestershire will choose from a squad of 15 at Hove, but may well be unchanged from the Glamorgan game.

Sussex have lost only once in the group so far and would go above Gloucestershire with a win. They have a particularly strong bowling attack in T20, with the pace of Tymal Mills, Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan, and the guile of 19-year-old Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan.

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