Essex Again Blast number 1
By Grockle et al
May 31 2024
Jake Ball gets the nod ahead of Josh Davey and Sean Dickson gets the chance to restart his season ahead of Tom Lammonby who HAS started his much more effectively and is unlucky to miss out. Welcome to Riley Meredith... Taunton expects!
Blast Game 1 Essex @ Taunton Friday 31 May 2024
The side tonight is,
Will Smeed, Tom Banton, TKC, Tom Abell, Sean Dickson, Lewis Gregory, Ben Green, Craig Overton, RvdM, Jake Ball, Riley Meredith. Somerset won the toss and are fielding. Essex have gone with 4 spinners - Oh what fun.
News is up that Lewis Goldsworthy has been loaned to Leicestershire for the duration of the competition. Good news for him but probably the knell of his career here. It makes sense as he was unlikely to play with RvdM and Bash available and he needs top level cricket to further his career.
Rossington and Elgar face for Essex and Craig Overton opens from the River... First and second balls go for four. Meredith gets the nod at the MT foroer nummber 2 as COve goes for 10! Riley has some wheels and goes for 3.
It's not exactly going to plan by over number 5 with an Essex 50 already on the board and Craig going for few of them off his 3 (he does not bowl a fourth). The Essex men seem keen to push the score looking for runs every ball and punishing anything loose... And there's quite a bit of that. Meredith has gone for 16 off his 3.
At 6 overs we see the first change with RvdM in at the River end. He goes for 8 and is followed by Lewis Gregory at the MT
The captain's 3rd ball says 'goodbye' to Rossington bowled comprehensively for a good 32 off 24 balls. Essex are 67 for 1 and end the 8th at 70. Roelof prompts a 'slog' reverse sweep off Pepper... Right into Ben Green's 'buckets' and it is 74 for with Jordan Cox replacing him. The 10th over is awarded to Ben and his dubious hairstyle.
87 for 2 after 10 and Jake Ball is on for the 11th. Essex go to 100 by the end of that one and this score is going at a belt! 110 for 2 after 12 and RvdM returns for the 13th. 3 overs for 20 and 1 wicket for the old boy!! Greener takes the 14 with Elgar seeing it like a football. He goes to 50 off 35 balls with 5 fours and a 6 and this score is looking 200 bound unless Somerset can get a handle on this.
Lewis pulls something back as he gets Cox to fire the ball to Ball and he goes for 30. Unfortunately that brings Walter in who has no intention of waiting around and by the time Meredith is re-introduced for the 16th Essex are passing 150 with Walter taking 16 off 6. Riley goes for an excellent 21 off his first 4. No wickets but a good start from the Aussie.
He is replaced by Green with the visitors at 157 for the loss of 3. He gets a reward as he bowls Sam's for 1 off 2 at 159 for 4. Ball takes the 19th and after 2 more fours and a single he bowls Walter for18 off 8 at 170 for 5. Gregory takes the last and finally gets Elgar with his 4th ball for 77 off 51 at 186 for 6 courtesy of TKCs hands. They finish on 193, probably less than they hopes for but still a large ask at 194. Howeer, Somerset feel they can chase anything at Taunton and so they will come out firing one would expect.
THE REPLY
Sam's starts against our openers and they both get off the mark with singles before Banton gets the first boundary. We move to 8. Beard takes the second and the Somerset keeper puts him into the Gimblett to record the first six as well. By the time Allison takes the third we have finally get a Smeed boundary but it's Banton who has most of the runs 29 of which Will has 6
Walter takes the 4th and Smeed goes into overdrive. He passes his partner in the 1 over moving to 22 off 10 balls before the end of the over. Banton falls trying to keep up, caught by Allison off Beard for 21 off 14. We are 49 for 1 and in comes TKC... The 50 arrives almost immediately.
Sam's comes on for the 5th and tempts Smeed once too often. Will deposits Sam's into the hands of Palmer for a massive 39 off 16. Abell joins TKC but not for long as Critchley takes over and Harmer (he's a hell of a fielder tobe honest) takes a blinder to send the rusty TKC back to the hutch to bring out Dickson at 70 for 3 at the end of the 7th.
We now move into the 'sedate' phase as neither of these bat's are in any kind of form and they are facing leg spin at both ends as Benkenstein joins the attack. 84 for 3 after 9. Simon Harmer joins the attack for the 10th. 90 at halfway 104 off 60 balls to take this one.
Essex are moving their 3 spinners around to keep the home side guessing and Dickson answers them with a massive six into the Gimblett to bring up then100 off Critchley in the 12th. In Benkenstein's 14th Tom Abell starts to look for big scores and moves to 34 before his partner puts it into the flat penthouse. A 50 partnership off 36 balls as they to motor little more taking 20 off the over and moving to 127 for 3.
That becomes 4 as Allison takes Dickson out for 26 (off 19) at 127. That brings the skipper out and Beard returns from the MT and produces a good over for only 2. Allison comes back at the River and receives a Lewis six for his troubles and we need 55 off 5! With Tom A on 40 and the captain on 9.
Harmer returns and we move towards 150 with a Gregory one bounce four to the Caddyshack. The milestone comes up from Abell 2 balls later and it is followed by a six to take Abell to 50 (31 balls 5 four and a six) 156 for 4 becomes 164 courtesy of a boundary from Gregory early in the next over and he repeats the stroke to the Somerset stand from Critchley. He then repeats it into the Tone - 20 off the over and a 50 partnership off 21 balls. 178 for 4 with a ball to go in the 17th. This could be the defining oer of the game as before it the result was a close run thing. By its end...well it could be done!!
15 from 18 as Gregory moves to 36 while Abell still has 51.
Sam's takes the 18th and does a very good job of holding the Somerset pair and after his efforts the home side need 9.
Walter is back for the 19th with Abell facing on 53. It becomes 55 (36 balls) after ball 1 and then snicks the second to go for 55. 187 for 5. In comes Green taking a single to get his boss on strike. Gregory takes a four to leave 2 but he is then deceived and caught and bowled by Walter for 44 off 20. In comes Craig to tie the scores with an over to go.
Finally, a four from Overton takes it. Close until it simply wasn't. Four wicket win with 5 balls to spare.
Somerset were not their usual selves in the field tonight. Small errorsgae the opposition singles and Overton was 'off key'. However, the new guy Meredith did well and the other men with the bowl were counted at important times during the game. RvdM held the line, Green took that important wicket as did Ball and Gregory.
The opening partnership got off to a decent start with Banton taking the lead before Smeed found his feet and then went wild. TKC was obviously a little 'rusty' but Abell and Dickson produced stability, with Tom A happily finding some form after a sketchy start at Durham. Lewis came in to put the game away before CraigO put it to bed. The bowling needs to hold the score down a little better but who doubts that this lot can reach a target at home?
Now lets see if they can do it away against Surrey on Sunday!!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:06:04:16:31:28 by Grockle.
Lewis has a strong squad but how rusty will some of it be?
The game is on SKY which means there is no livestream so I will try an keep a frontpage going to keep those without access up to some kind of date.
Fingers crossed for the start of summer in more ways than one.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:05:30:17:55:12 by Grockle.
Gregory, Banton, Smeed (extension of 2 years on contract just announced), TKC, Abell, Lammonby, Dickson, Green, Overton, RvdM, Davey, Meredith, Ball
Pretorius will be concussed as of yet and how he is included will be interesting. Roelof with the spin responsibility.
Don't forget it is a double header if you want to come early with Western Storm taking on the Sunrisers in the Charlotte Edwards Cup from 14:30
Gates open at 1:30
Here's the other info if anyone needs it
The Preview
Fingers crossed for a positive start for the title holders...!
Or have we done the usual default to fielding first, even though the stats say we are better off batting first at Taunton?
Quote:hantssabre
Will have to bat well to chase this total down.
Or you could say:
Will has to bat well to chase this total down.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Very good top order, with Smeed in particular delivering. Followed by the inevitable wobble - this is Somerset, after all.
Abell and Gregory lead the recovery and then - this is Somerset, after all - another little wobble at the end.
I'll settle for that.
But before very long, they are surely going to have to look at the wicket-keeper position. Tom Banton was his usual impressive stroke-maker at the start of the Somerset reply, but was completely out of touch behind the wicket. He even ended by arranging seven runs for Essex off their last two balls..... dropping the ball from delivery 5 to allow a bye, and then seeing the new batsmen hit delivery 6 for six.
Keep Banton opening the innings by all means, but bring in James Rew to tighten up the fielding. Very difficult to drop anyone to make room, of course, but despite being MoM in last year`s final, it might just have to be Sean Dickson. An alternative might be to give the gloves to Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who kept occasionally during his time with Worcestershire and Yorkshire.
I thought Tom kept perfectly fine.
Quite tidy innings collecting outfield throws, missed nothing easy.
Batters will always steal byes in the last few balls with a keeper stood back.
Superb win again, almost good to do it a different way.
No PP wickets but we found a way to restrict them from going BIG.
Chase was always in hand, never got above 11s & we targeted the right time to go for it a few overs out.
Good to see the boss out and about checking what was going on, Jamie is going to be a great addition I feel, visible, engaged and gets us.
Agree with wsm fan - that Essex innings looked like it could have gone very big, and chasing 190-odd is much easier than chasing 210-plus, he says somewhat obviously!
I watched a fair number of last season's games on live stream and the fielding was as good as any I've ever seen, so here's hoping for the same this season.
And Banton can't be as bad as the poor Pakistani keeper who should clearly not be in the team - and is only there because his dad is the selector! He dropped two catches I reckon I could have caught (sic).
There were very few failures last night, with TKC being one of the most obvious, though I doubt the last few months have done him any good, apart from financially...!
Great game from the captain, and I like how Tome Abell seems to be able to score at a decent rate while rarely hitting sixes. Smeed started with a bang, too! If he could have stayed for another over or two...
Great bowling figures from Roelof and Meredith, who looks like a good signing so far.
Here's to the next game.
Surrey have already won 2/2 and so Sunday's match will be a major challenge. We won at The Oval last summer and I shall be there tomorrow to see us win again.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
The Oval can be slow and tricky so he might be the right choice for tomorrow but not necessarily for games where the pitches are flatter - where TL might be a better bet.
Agree with wsm fan - that Essex innings looked like it could have gone very big, and chasing 190-odd is much easier than chasing 210-plus, he says somewhat obviously!
I watched a fair number of last season's games on live stream and the fielding was as good as any I've ever seen, so here's hoping for the same this season.
And Banton can't be as bad as the poor Pakistani keeper who should clearly not be in the team - and is only there because his dad is the selector! He dropped two catches I reckon I could have caught (sic).
There were very few failures last night, with TKC being one of the most obvious, though I doubt the last few months have done him any good, apart from financially...!
Great game from the captain, and I like how Tome Abell seems to be able to score at a decent rate while rarely hitting sixes. Smeed started with a bang, too! If he could have stayed for another over or two...
Great bowling figures from Roelof and Meredith, who looks like a good signing so far.
Here's to the next game.