LIAM Dawson is focused on continuing his impressive Royal London One-Day Cup form against Warwickshire today – after a heavy defeat against his former Essex teammates last night.

The all-rounder is Hampshire’s leading batsman and bowler in the 50-over competition.

After hitting a career-best 85 in vain as Hampshire lost by seven wickets to the county he was loaned to last month, he admitted being bowled out for 209 on another excellent Ageas Bowl wicket was not good enough.

Dawson said: “We were well short. It was a belting wicket, probably the best we’ve had here in one-day cricket and the type you want to play on.

“We needed 280 to 300 to have a chance of winning. We batted poorly, it’s very hard to get a decent score from four down after ten overs.”

Dawson shared a sixth-wicket stand of 124 with Will Smith (63).

“We just wanted to bat," he continued. "With a lot of overs left we couldn’t afford to take any risks so we tried to be as sensible as we could.

“We got to 35 or 40 overs and then took a couple more risks but it didn’t really pay off.

“I had to be clever with what I was doing. On another day I would have gone for more boundaries but I had to bat time.”

Dawson, who has ten RLODC wickets at 17 apiece, took 1-40 from his ten overs.

“With totals like that you need early wickets otherwise it is very hard to win the game,” he said. “A couple turned but it was very flat.”

Now Hampshire are setting their sights on beating Warwickshire today (2pm) after losing second spot in Group B to Essex.

“We’ve got to win,” he said. "There are a lot of tired lads around the country but that’s the schedule. We’ll get some rest and go again. We need to beat Warwickshire to give us some breathing space.

“We’ve probably been robbed of a point at Glamorgan which could be massive, but it’s still in our hands.”