Second Burst of Vitality - Sussex by the Sea
By Grockle
June 1 2023
No change to the side that waved Hampshire away at Taunton with almost no backward glance on Wednesday. Now we go to Hove on Friday in the sunshine to see if we can keep this momentum going.
No change to the side from Wednesday of
Banton, Smeed, TKC, Abell, Lammonby, Gregory, RvdM, Green, Overton, Henry, Siddle
Josh Davey is still not ready for the first team, though he may not have been able to push Ben Green out even if he had been ready.
The one thing with this two shirt system Somerset have gone with for the T20 is that you know what they are doing almost immediately (as long as they wear the right ones of course). We won the toss for this one and once again we would like to chase and so we are bowling first. Sussex have a good bowling attack with Tymal Mills and Shadab Khan ready to go but we do know how to chase and will do so whenever we can, Ravi Bopara is also in pretty good form so this Friday night might be a serious challenge in front of a decent crowd.
A lovely evening with Baignton and Blackwell as umpires, Craig Overton starts from the 'Sea End' and Tom Clarke hits the first for a boundary through the covers off the third ball. Orr is at the other end. However, Clarke isn't there for long as he top edges the fifth ball to Gregory at mid-off and Sussex are 9 for 1. Tom Alsop replaces him and the home side end the first on 13
Matt Henry nearly gets a wicket with his first ball as Orr is all but run out going for a quick one and he also hits the 3rd to a fielder but it drops short of the man's hands. Alsop isn't as lucky as he swings to leg and is caught on the boundary by Roelof off the bowling of COve halfway through the third over and Ravi Bopara joins the fight with his side on 25 for 2. Overton has not been cheap as he went for 22 off his first 2 but he does have 2 wickets in what is a fast start for Sussex who reach 43 for 2 after 4 overs.
Siddle is introduced from the 'Sea' wiith the 5th and Orr puts the score past 50 with the first six of the game and the speed continues as the 6th adds another 11 and Sussex are going at 11 an over at the end of the 'Powerplay'.
Lewis comes in for the 7th. Orr tries to smack the ball back past the captain but he clutches on to the ball and Orr is caught and bowled at 69 for 3. In comes Khan. Somerset introduce spin for the 8th and Ben Green for the 9th, keeping the opposition on their toes with overs of variation. RvdM makes the breakthrough as he gets Shadab to slap the ball cover where Lewis hangs on and Burges is in at 84 for 4. By halfway it is 86 for 4 and we have pulled the game back to something more manageable.
Lewis takes the 11th and Burgess brings up the home 100 in the 12th with a reverse sweep four off van der Merwe but he is doing his job with 12 runs in 3 overs with 1 wicket. Pete comes back and Bopara looks to hit him for six. He puts the ball down TKC's throat but the Somerset man can't keep the ball inside the rope and it goes for six. As 108 arrives at the end of the over and Ben takes the next one, we notice that Siddle has the wrong shirt on (the first official first team player to do this)!!
At 15 Sussex look strong at 131 for 4, Roelof completes his excellent spell with only 1 in the 16th. Henry returns for the 17th and a full toss has Burgess pulling the ball once more to Gregory and it's 141 for 5. Garton arrives, and then leaves again thanks to a brilliant diving catch from Tom Abell without bothering the scorer. Matt is on a hat-trick but the third ball is a full toss to McAndrew.
The 150 comes up in Green's next over but the next wicket doesn't come until the 19th when Gregory gets McAndrew at 161. Henry takes the 20th and he sees the end of Hudson-Prentiss courtesy of RvdM and Sussex end on 183 for 8. A decent score but a lot less than the first 6 overs suggested.
Somerset Reply
Garton starts at the 'Sea End' and it is 10 after 1 as Banton looks more confident than the start of the last game. Mills takes the second and Somerset reach 18 by the end of it. Garton takes the third and a still 'rusty' Smeed pulls to the leg side and is caught... it is still not there Will unfortunately. In comes TKC at 19
Hudson-Prentiss takes the 4th and Banton takes him for 29 off the over and pushes the score to 50 by the end of 4th. McAndrew is introduced with Mills taking over from Hudson-Prentiss for the 6th. Halfway through this Banton has a burst of over-confidence and scoops Mills to Orr who doesn't drop it. Not a bad start but it could have been better as the Somerset keeper leaves at 58 for 2. The Powerplay score is 57.
Bopara starts his bowling account in the 7th and his fourth ball sees TKC putting the ball into the air. Khan and McAndrew fully run into each other going for the ball and both end up on the floor for 15 minutes. At the end of this Khan looks like he will not take any more part in the proceedings and Wood comes on as the sub.
Coles and McAndrew take the next two and with the first visitor six from TKC at the start of the 9th, Somerset reach 89 for 2 at halfway.
Hudson-Prentiss is re-introduced for the 11th and with a six and 3 more in the first half of his over the 100 comes up. Along with this and Coles' second which is Sussex's 12th Somerset take 29 off 2 overs to go to 118.
In Garton's 13th, TKC passes 50, his debut one for Somerset in T20 off 30 balls. The batting partnership continues and by 15 we have 152 and though MIlls is back for the 16th, Tom Abell and TKC put on a 100 partnership in 10 overs with 33 and 68 respectively. That is about it for Kohler-Cadmore though as he chips to Coles and is out for 72 off 42 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes 162 for 3 and this game is pretty much in Somerset's back pocket - well maybe.
Tom Lammonby walks out with a game to put away but in the 18th he also tries to scoop Mills and doesn't get enough on it and it plops into Coles' hands at fine leg. It is 167 for 4 and travelling supporters start to think 'Oh no... not this close!'
Gregory is in with 17 needed and top edges one to make it 172 for 4 at the end of the 18th. That is 12 off 12 needed and we seem to be desperate to get them in singles. It becomes even more of a worry when Lewis runs Abell out with 6 off 6 needed. The good thing is that Hudson-Prentiss has to take the 20th over and Ben Green doesn't tend to hang around. Ball 1 goes for a single, ball 2 does the same and then Ben smacks the four we need and we win by 5 wickets with 3 balls to go!!
A good performance. Sussex pushed at the start and we pulled them back, especially with the tight spell of Roelof van der Merwe. Tom Banton is batting into form, Will Smeed is still off the pace but with the solid partnership of Abell and TKC we have a solid batting line-up. Sussex losing Khan to the fielding injury did not help their cause. Not sure how far we will have to go into the rest of it should these two go early but we saw the back end of the batting put a game away . It isn't looking bad two games in that is very definite. On to Glamorgan and the double header with the women back in Taunton on Sunday.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:06:04:14:43:14 by Grockle.
Ravi Bopara, who appeared in 13 Tests for England while with Essex, captains a squad of 15: Alsop, Bopara, Burgess, Carter, Clark, Coles, Crocombe, Currie, Garton, Hudson-Prentice, Khan, McAndrew, Mills, Orr and Ward.
Unsurprisingly, Somerset name the same 13 players on duty for the walloping of Hampshire at Taunton Wednesday, with Josh Davey and Lewis Goldsworthy added to the 11 who played then.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2023:05:27:17:50:00 by Grockle.
McAndrew bowled like an absolute drain for Warks in the CC, at Taunton, last year.
Field.
Commentator mistakenly said we were batting.
If so, why!?
Smeed looked somewhat out of his depth again.
Might need a TKC special here.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
On to Glamorgan
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Unfortunately missed all of this evenings game, but that looks like a pretty entertaining and very successful chase, particularly by the Tom trio.
Grizzers
Made a bit tighter than it should have been, a few too many dot balls near the end.
Yes, it was a little squeakier at the end than it might have been, but I suspect it was measured the whole way - though I hope net run rate isn't relevant later on.
It seems to have been a good team effort, with strong performances with the ball from Overton, Gregory and Van der Merwe and good batting from three of the Toms. Tom Kohler-Cadmore after a slow start in the County Championship certainly seems to have found his feet in both the four-day and one-day format.
But away from Taunton it looks like Surrey's start to the season hasn't been too shabby...
Sussex coach Paul Farbrace said, "Shadab is okay, although he's got a bit of a sore neck. The doctor felt it was best to take him out of the game. We tried to replace him with Henry Crocombe but the match referee said it had to be like-for-like which is why Harrison Ward came on.
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