Blast Number 13 - Meredith finishes. Sussex want the points
By Grockle
July 18 2024
Riley plays his last home game for use now he has a short franchaise contract as an injury replacement. Does that mean Will Smeed is a Somerset player again if he rehabs well? Dany Lamb returns with the Sharks. We need a point and we'd like to get it against Sussex because it probably also means a home quarter final. We have won the toss and will bowl first
Blast Number 13 v Sussex @ Taunton Thursday 18 July 2024
The winner of this will be hoping to qualify for the quarters. Somerset need 1 point and we'd like Sussex to muck it up as well.
The side is almost the one that beat Hampshire on Sunday.
Banton, Thomas, TKC, Abell, Dickson, Green, Gregory, Overton, Meredith, Leach, Ball
So COve comes in for Pretorius (no official position regarding his contract presently).
Overton opens at the River end to Ward and Hughes to a nearly 'sold out' crowd who aren't all here yet it seems. Ward is off the mark with a single. Some good infielding keeps them at 1. Meredith takes the second from the MT. His first is 89.1 mph it seems. The next is 89.6mph. His third finds bat and speeds to the Ondaatje boundary from Ward. He's over 90 for the next and the one after that flies to the boundary at 92.6 for a flashed four. 13 after the second.
Hughes also goes in for the 'flashed' four from Overton in the next over but he then produces a real gem to the Somerset with the next ball to show he can actally do the less flukey ones. It's 25 off 3 and it could be a BIG score tonight.
he major difference between Meredith this year and our speedster of previous seasons is that if a bat misses one of his deliveries, they lose their stumps. Doesn't help if they hit them but it's a better feeling to be honest. At the end of the over he fires one in that Ward gets hold of. It streaks to Lewis but just drops short. However. Ball comes on at the River and has Hughes caught by Overton first ball at 31 for 1 for 13. In comes Tom Clark.
Ward finishes the over with a six to the Caddyshack and they move to 43 for 1. COve changes ends and the Sussex 50 looks on after a straight lofted four from Clark but the England bowler defends if and ends the Powerplay with Sussex on 49 for 1.
Gregory takes the next and another lofted shot which just drops short of the fielder gives them the single to go to 50. His first ends with a tidy 5 off it and Sussex on 54 for 1. On comes Jack and the 'Press' starts. The first is a leg side delivery that is simply scooped for four to the Hildreth. The next is a straight six. The third is a top edge and Ward goes at 64 for 1. He made 39. 66 for 1 after the spinner's over. He is followed by Ben Green who also gets one of them to flail one to the Trade Nation stand to be caught by Thomas and Clark leaves for 12 at 66 for 3. Then 'Golden Arm' gets another one (Simpson) to find Jack Leach in front of the Ondaatje without scoring 66 for 4.
Tom Alsop arrives and Green finishes the double wicket over at 68 for 4. Jack continues and Alsop finds him hard to get away. He ends at 71 for 4 at the halfway stage. The skipper takes the next and Alsop and Coles take the score to 79. Ball comes back on at the MT to mix it up again and hopefully not let the Sussex pair settle. After 12 the visitors have 88 and Jake goes for 9 off the over.
Greener tempts Alsop and Thomas drops him on the boundary and gives away a six. Next balls he fires the ball straight to Craig and the first thing he does is go over to George to celebrate. 92 for 5 and Green has 3. 94 for 5 after 13 Ben has 3 for 8 off 2 ands six of them were a dropped catch! Jack does the 14th and the 100 arrives from ball 3 and they move to 103 as Lewis returns for the 15th. Danny Lamb is at the crease and is looking to move the score on against his ex-team mates. It's 'Nelson' after 15 with Coles on 25 and Lamb on 10.
Meredith is back from the MT. A mix up going for a second has Dickson firing it back in and running Coles out for 26. 114 for 6. McAndrew is the next man in and he fires one into the Somerset for six from Ball during the 17th. Danny takes a risk to Dickson and fails to make his mark again. Run out for 17 at 128 for 7. Daft gamble. The over ends at 128
Riley stays on for the 18th with McAndrew looking to push the score on past 150. They've got it to 140 and he finishes his last home spell with 0 for 29.
Jake bowls out at the River and the last over starts at 149 for 7. In comes Green to finish off the innings and nearly has Robinson run out first ball. Next ball goes high and is caught by... Dickson 150 for 8. He then nearly gets another run out ball 3 but Greener falls over the wicket. Ball 5 is a nice ramp to return us to sanity. The last ball has Sussex running for two and Robinson is run out at 158 for 9. Ben Green finishes with 4 for 17 and 6 of those were a dropped catch. Somerset need 159. Enough?
The Reply
Banton opens at the MT with Thomas at the other end. He'll be facing Ollie Robinson and manages to miss the first flail!! He's off the mark with asingle off the next. George also is off with the next. The first four comes from quite a flash from the Somerset keeper. It's all a bit 'living dangerously' at the moment. 8 from the first. On comes Currie from the MT and he is met by a very nice straight drive from George which is picked up just short of the MT boundary. He gets a four from a glance later in the over. We move on to 16.
Robinson continues and Thomas drives him to the CA at the start of the third. It ends with a score of 23. George starts the fourth with a sublime drive to the Ondaatje followed by another to the Gimblett. He is the one leading from the front at the start of this game. 34 for 0. Trying to keep up, Bants flips the ball to Clark off the first ball of Mills and goes for 8 at 34. In comes TKC.
He doesn't mess about and deposits his first over the rope in front of the Hildreth. The 5th finishes at 42 as Robinson changes ends. TKC simply dismisses one ball as if it is worthless and the pair move to 52 with a leg glance from George to move him to 29. The Powerplay ends at 56 for 1.
McAndrew takes the next and the move to 62 and Danny comes on at the MT. George says 'welcome back' with a straight boundary back over his head. But Danny gets his own back by making him hit one up high to be caught in the infield for 42 off 30 (7 fours) at 70 for 2. George hasn't had a bad week to be honest.
McAndrew holds Somerset up but Tom Abell will 'nurdle and after the 9th we have 76. Mills changes ends to bring an end to the first half. Abell smacks one back at him and he is nearly C&B though it did come at him at a hell of a rate. TKC flails at one and gets a top edge which means it doesn't go the distance and he is also caught by Clark for 20 off 13 balls at 79 for 3. In comes Sean Dickson to the non strikers end as Currie takes the next.
Dickson smacks a six to the Hildreth with some aplomb and a couple of singles moves the score on to 89 with both bats on 7. Lamb stays on at the MT and is greeted by a chipped six by Tom A into the Ondaatje followed by a two to bring up the 100. 59 needed off 49.
With another single to finish the over we then have McAndrew on at the River and Dickson takes a liking to him hitting him for three consecutive fours to take him to 20 off 8. The 13th ends with another Dickson four to move us to 120. Mills continues with the 14th with us needing 39 off 42. Dickson skies it and Ward drops it. Tymal is not impressed and we run two. We then get two overthrows in the over as well 129 at the end of the over. The ask is 30 off 36 as the pair reach a 50 partnership from 24 balls.
at the start. He then sixes him to the Gimblett to move us under 20 needed. 140 for 3 and Ollie shows his frustration by taking a kick at the ball.
Mills bowls his last defending 19. He finishes on 148 and we need 11. On comes Coles In the third ball of the over Tom Clark runs out Sean Dickson from the Somerset Stand by a direct hit...phenomenal throw. 149 for 4 and in comes the skipper needing 10 off 3 and a half overs. They take two to move it over to 153 and that is the end of the scoring for that over.
McAndrew is on at the MT for the 18th and Somerset need 7 Tom takes a single and then Lewis spins to fire a four to the CA and we need 2. Tom Abell finishes it off and we win by 6 wickets in the 18th with 14 balls remaining. We are into the quarter finals with the game at Glamorgan deciding whether we are at home or not.
Another very very good performance.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:07:20:17:11:34 by Grockle.
They add Craig Overton and Tom Lammonby to the players on duty for Sunday`s comprehensive win over Hampshire at Southampton. Squad: Gregory (c), Banton, Kohler-Cadmore, Abell, Dickson, Lammonby, George Thomas, Green, Pretorius, Overton, Meredith, Ball and Leach.
Sussex, who are a single point ahead of Somerset in second place, bring a large 16-man squad: Alsop, Carson, Carter, Clark, Coles, Crocombe, Hudson-Prentice, Hughes, Currie, Lamb, Lenham, McAndrew, Mills (c), Robinson, Simpson and Ward.
Meanwhile, Glamorgan will give a fitness test to Sam Northeast (hamstring) ahead of Friday`s game at Sophia Gardens.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2024:07:17:23:28:40 by Grockle.
No Metro50 for him- Gosh what a surprise that is! Nice to see they are picking up 'like for like" players 😂 injuries are all bats & they take a fast bowler... ZERO to do with profile at all of course. Franchise haul is up to 11.
Good luck managing his workload at Trent Bridge ACB 😂😂
The only change on the teamsheet presently is Craig Overton for Jake Ball. We are going to get possibly our strongest bowling attack on Riley Meredith's last home game. George Thomas keeps his place - not suprisingly
Sussex didn’t do themselves many favours this eveing, but all the more credit to us for helping them on their way.
George Thomas is certainly making the most of his opportunities.
Grizzers
Not last night. The expectation was that we'd get that without too many issues & the front end would do it rather than Jack off the 119th ball with a squeeky single.
We've had a damn good T20 week of no nonsense, professional & efficient victories against our immediate rivals who are no slouches themselves in this format.
We can still fail to reach the Finals again but you can't say it hasn't been a decent campaign whatever the final position becomes.
Grizzers