BRAINTREE Cricket Club captain Louis Cant rued some "very poor decision making" in his team's run chase at Kesgrave as the Dolphins ultimately came up just short in a very tight game.

Having lost their previous two outings, a six-run defeat was not the result that Braintree were looking for at Kesgrave and was a blow to their Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division two title hopes.

While Cant's side are still top, their lead has now been trimmed to six points ahead of a home game against Little Bardfield on Saturday and Cant felt it was with the bat where they really fell short last weekend.

Braintree bowled first and restricted Kesgrave to 169 for eight from their 45 overs, with Robbie Spalding leading the way with five for 48 and Grace Poole taking three for 20.

Cant said: "We won the toss and we chose to bowl on a pitch that was green on top and had a damp outfield, which we knew would dry up later.

"Our opening bowlers didn’t capitalise on the conditions though and the first ten overs were rather wayward.

"I felt we gave them 20 to 30 too many runs in that opening period.

"When Grace Poole came on though, she was in the money from ball one, only going for about 15 runs in her first seven-over spell.

"That allowed Robbie Spalding to take advantage of some careless shots caused by the pressure being built at the other end and we really started to the screw.

"I thought it all went our way then until the tea break with only their opening batsman causing us an issue by not getting out.

"Although I felt we kept him off strike quite well."

Despite having a relatively modest total to chase, though, Braintree were unable to get to their target and fell frustratingly short as the hosts won by six runs.

Cant added: "We fell short again with our batting, as we just needed one of our top four to kick in and get some runs, but the wickets kept falling, with some very poor decision making on our behalf.

"Especially with two run outs in very quick succession."

Braintree will now be looking to get back to winning ways when they host Little Bardfield at Panfield Lane on Saturday and Cant is hoping for a robust response to their recent run of poor form.

The Braintree skipper said: "It’s the strongest side we’ve had for a few weeks, with the exception of Dan Chalk not being available."