LUKE Sellers admitted that his Lechlade side dropped the ball as they fell to a heavy 154-run defeat at home to Cheltenham.

The Lechlade coach conceded that missed catches cost them as Cheltenham’s Kieran Smith and Peter Woodland took advantage as they both scored centuries to give the hosts a tricky target of 332 to win.

The challenge was made even harder for Lechlade as they lost four early wickets, including the run-out of influential batsman Brad Dial, for just 24, before they were eventually bowled out with 21 overs remaining.

“I think we were punished for making similar mistakes to those we have made all season, which is disappointing,” said Sellers. “We have dropped too many catches and given away too many extras.

“The two guys who got hundreds, don’t get me wrong they batted well, but I think we dropped one of them three times and the other one twice and you can’t do that at this stage of the season.

“I think we have averaged, it is no exaggeration, at least five drops a game.

“We have nobody to blame but ourselves and we know exactly what we need to do.

“We lost four early wickets in the chase, and when you are chasing a total that big it is a death knell.

“I don’t really apportion too much blame to the batsman, they were funny wickets, but ultimately we were chasing a lot more than we should have been.”

Lechlade lost the toss and despite Tristan Hawkes (3-46) taking a wicket with the first ball of the match, it was largely downhill for the home side from that point.

The usual mixture of wides and no-balls enabled Cheltenham to prosper as Smith (104) and Woodland (134no) set about building a tremendous match winning partnership of 179 runs off 182 balls.

In the final eight overs Cheltenham scored 81 runs to post an impressive 331-5.

The Lechlade reply got off to a disastrous start and, when Dial was run out backing up when the bowler touched a fierce drive from Benny Ellis onto the stumps, it was clearly not going to be their day.

It was left to youngsters Freddie Martin and Benny Ellis (67) to post a respectable total, as a 122-run partnership in only 51 minutes showed great promise, but when Martin (43) finally holed out the rest of the batting fell away as they were skittled for 177.