Peter Moores has called for introspection after Nottinghamshire were shot out for just 92 in 25.1 overs on the third evening of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Somerset at Taunton.
The home side had piled on the runs before declaring on 514/8, setting Notts a nominal victory target of 492.
Once both openers had fallen with only two runs on the board the rest of the innings fell away quickly, leaving Somerset to gain revenge for their loss at Trent Bridge in April.
“That feels like one of the tougher defeats, that’s for sure,” said Moores. “Especially after we’d got ourselves into a good position after Day One.
“Then for the last two days we’ve been absolutely dominated by them. It all happened too fast. The back half of the first innings when we lost those wickets in the morning I thought they bowled well.
“Matt Henry was probably the pick of the bowlers and they got much more out of the pitch than we did.”
The Head Coach continued, “The players have got to have a long, hard look at themselves because we’ve got to do better than that when it comes down to it but credit to the way Somerset played.
“They’ve played good cricket for certainly the second two days and deserve the win.”
Moores remarked that he’d spoken to the group collectively after the suddenness of the defeat.
“I said to them that you don’t hide away from something. Also, you have to try and keep it in the perspective of a long season.
“We didn’t get runs in the first innings in the last game against Warwickshire and obviously we didn’t get runs here, so we have to look at that aspect and come back with more.
“We’ve got a big game against Surrey at The Oval next in the County Championship and It’s really important that each player takes his time and works out what he’s going to do if he’s in that team and we’ve got to be better.
“Every person has to look at his own innings. It’s a team game but each person has to look at his own dismissal and decide if he could have done anything differently.”
Moores reserved praise for the performance of Matt Carter, though, who was playing his first red ball game for the county in almost three years.
“He bowled well, especially in the first innings when there was a bit of moisture about and he was able to get a bit of pace and bounce.
“In the second innings he did a good job for us because the pitch didn’t break up. It offered just a bit of turn and bounce and I thought Matt operated very well.”
Looking at the rest of the week Moores said the focus must now swiftly turn to the importance of the remaining games in the T20 Blast North Group.
“We must move on quickly from this,” he said.
“We have a couple of big T20 games to try and qualify for the quarter finals. We know what we have to do. We could still get a home quarter final or we could still miss out. We’ll regroup on Thursday, train and get ready to go again.”