BRAINTREE Cricket Club captain Dan Garner said losing wickets in the middle part of their innings proved costly as his side came down just on the wrong side of a result against Mildenhall seconds.

The Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division two game saw a first defeat of the year for Braintree as their run chase ended just seven runs short of the required target.

Garner said dropped catches were also costly as his side were all out for 212 in the penultimate over as they replied to Mildenhall’s 219 for seven, but the Braintree skipper said there were still plenty of positives to take from the encounter.

“In general our performance was good,” he said.

“Dan Chalk was moved up to three (in the batting order) this week and hit a powerful 61, while Will Jackson and Rory Ainsley both contributed with scores in the mid 30s.

“If we were to play the game again there wouldn’t be much that I would change. Small changes to the batting order due to availability paid off with Dan Chalk proving his worth to our team with his 61.

“We did however drop five catches when fielding which could have changed the game but our bowling was good and on another day we would have won that game.

“It was a close game in truth, to only lose by seven runs in the 44th over shows how close it was.

“For us we just lost too many quick wickets in the middle overs which left us short in the end.”

Braintree are set to be without some members of the first-team squad when they host Sudbury seconds on Saturday, but Garner is looking for his side to bounce back from their defeat.

He added: “We are expecting to be without Will Jackson, Josh Newman and Dan Chalk, but after Saturday, I want to get a win back on the board and start building some consistency.

“Unfortunately, with our availability our team is changing week by week but that cannot be helped. So we will be focusing on the win first and foremost.”