Michael Di Venuto bemoans lack of consistency as Surrey fall to fourth consecutive Blast defeat

KISHAN VAGHELA AT THE OVAL: The 45-year-old Surrey head coach was left frustrated by his side despite an improved bowling performance

Scorecard | Kishan Vaghela

Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto bemoaned his side's lack of consistent good cricket after their fourth consecutive Blast defeat.

Despite an improved bowling performance from the home side, Gloucestershire managed to compile 165 runs at The Oval, and in reply Surrey began slowly, reaching 52 for 2 from 7.5 overs before the rain intervened.

The revised playing conditions resulted in Surrey needing to double their score with 25 balls remaining to win, and despite a valiant effort from Sam Curran and Ollie Pope, the hosts fell short to extend their winless run to five matches, a set of results that has annoyed the Australian. 

"It is frustrating, there is no doubt about that. It is not just this competition we haven't played well in this season.

"Our cricket has been up and down and a lot more down than up for the majority of the season for a lot of reasons.

^{Sam Curran and Ollie Pope could not see Surrey over the line}

"We are not playing good enough cricket consistently enough to get the results that we are working for, so it is disappointing to lose.

"It was a much better effort tonight, it was much better in the field and with the ball but we fell two shots short of a victory, so it is another loss."

After conceding 210 runs on Thursday evening against Middlesex, Surrey's bowling unit were in much better flow and took eight Gloucestershire wickets, which pleased Di Venuto, who also reserved special praise for allrounder Sam Curran.

"The bowlers bounced back quite well today, some good skills were shown. It was probably an under-par total on that wicket and on that surface.

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"But still it would have been a tough chase because the Gloucestershire boys do defend quite well had it been a full 20-over game, so it would have been an interesting run chase.

"But we are pleased with our start and the way we were going about it. 

"It was an excellent performance [from Curran]. He has really grabbed his opportunity of going up to no.3, he has got a couple of fifties and a 30 or a 40 as well. He has batted beautifully for us.

"He is a super-talented young man and who has shown everybody what he can do."

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