Smith: We must improve

Hornchurch captain Roy Smith was disappointed after his team were beaten in the T20 semi-finals by Chelmsford on Sunday.

The Division One outfit restricted their Premier Division opponents to 155-4 from their 20 overs, but were dismissed for 144 to fall short by 11-runs.

Smith wasn’t happy with the display of his team, who have maintained an incredibly high standard throughout the campaign to date.

“As I said before Chelmsford are a good side. They are well drilled and organised, which on the day was our downfall,” said Smith.

“We weren’t organised as much as we normally are and we lost our discipline. We have bowled a lot better, field a lot better and batted a lot better.

“It is something we have to look at, especially if we get promoted to the Premier Division next season. We know improvement is needed if we do that.”

Hornchurch’s captain admitted he would have been satisfied with restricting Chelmsford to 155-4 at the halfway stage before the match.

But the bowling and fielding of the Division One leaders was well below par compared to their usual level of performance in the field.

Billy Gordon top scored with 27 in reply for Hornchurch while Paul Walter and Jamie Sorrell both hit 23, but it was never enough.

Smith added: “It was a very good wicket and a quick outfield so we would have settled for 150 at the halfway mark, but we didn’t field very well.

“We were sloppy with the ball. We could have kept them to 120 or 130 to be honest, but we were happy with 150. We just didn’t get off to a good enough start with bat.

“I think we had 11 runs off four overs and we didn’t get the explosive start that you need to have in T20 cricket.

“We were always that little bit behind the run rate and when we tried to catch up we lost a wicket, and that continued throughout.

“The problem was we just needed someone to get a 50 not out and anchor the innings, but getting out trying to keep up with the run rate is what can happen when you are under pressure.”