Cricket: Gloucestershire star Lewis eyes revenge against Hampshire (From Gazette Series)

Friends Provident t20 preview: Hampshire v Gloucestershire

10:20am Friday 25th June 2010 in Sport

JON LEWIS insists Gloucestershire's crushing defeat against Hampshire will have no bearing on the result when the sides lock horns again in the Friends Provident T20 today.

The Gladiators suffered the biggest defeat in a domestic T20 game in England in terms of balls remaining -75 - as the Royals cruised to a seven wicket victory at Bristol on Saturday to beat their previous record set in 2008 when they beat Sussex by nine wickets with 63 balls left.

Gloucestershire's total of 68 all out was also the second lowest T20 score ever in this country, only better than Sussex's 67 against Hampshire again in 2004, as lower order batsman Lewis top scored with 19 and captain Alex Gidman (10) was the only other player to reach double figures.

On such evidence a Gloucestershire win at the Rose Bowl tomorrow (7pm) is extremely unlikely, but they bounced back from a demoralising seven-wicket defeat against holders Sussex at Gloucester to gain a shock win at Hove five days later and seam bowler Lewis believes they are capable of doing the same again.

He said: "Every single game is an individual game."

"I don't think anyone in the division is much stronger than anyone else.

"If we play at our best we'll win some games, if we don't play at our best teams will walk all over us because we're not as good man on man as some of the other teams.

"This is a team we're probably as good as man on man but we didn't play well and they did and they got the win and that's the way this cricket is - the margins can look huge in such a short game.

"It's a huge competition with 16 games and it's about being more consistent."

Gloucestershire were also beaten at Taunton less than 24 hours earlier as local rivals Somerset chased down 200 with six wickets and seven balls remaining.

Steve Snell had scored 50 off 26 balls for the Gladiators but Zander de Bruyn hit a match-winning 95 not out off 49 deliveries to give the home side the bragging rights.

Hampshire also played the previous evening, going down by nine wickets to Sussex, and Lewis hit out at the hectic county cricket schedule which has come under some fierce criticism.

He said: "It's very tricky coming from one match to the next, the conditions are very different and the wicket is very different, but the guys have got to learn to adapt a lot quicker than they did.

"There are not enough days in the summer to be honest. We were playing four days back to back three weeks ago, now we're playing twenty20 back to back - it makes no sense.

"It's frustrating to be honest, guys will pick up injuries and we've got a small squad.

"I enjoy playing a lot of cricket but the structure and the way it's been put together is madness.

"But we've just got to get on with it, everyone else is getting on with it so it's survival of the fittest."