2nd Double Header Part 2 Somerset v Kent Six in a row?
By Grockle
June 15 2025
The jinx T20 team for us - Kent come to their favourite ground for playing us - Taunton with us looking for our sixth win in six games. Will it happen?
Vitality Game 6 - v Kent @ Taunton Sunday 15 June 2025
Lewis wins another toss and puts the opposition in again as we bowl first. The side will be pretty much unchanged from the Gloucestershire game earlier in the week.
The actual side is;
Smeed, Banton, TKC, Abell, Dickson, Gregory, Green, Goldsworthy, Overton, Meredith, Henry
Even the bowling is very much predictable nowadays as Overton takes the new ball at the MT and bowls to Muyeye and then to Bell-Drummond after he takes a single. It's 1 for 0 after one. Henry takes the next. So, if we go to the usual plan, these two will bowl 3 each and then either Craig will bowl out or Lewis will take the 7th, Lewis Goldsworthy the 8th and Ben Green the 9th. Let's see if it pans out that way.
For a 'sellout' there is some space in the Trade Nation but other than that the ground is pretty much full as the second goes for 9. The third over sees Muyeye sky one which swirls and goes away from Henry as he races back to try and get it. It drops short of him. 15 for 0
By the time we get to the 5th over the bowling prediction has run to form and Kent are looking to push along with Muyeye hitting 25 from his 13 balls and Bell-Drummond weighing in with a run a ball 13. It's 49 for 0 with a Muyeye six with one left to go before the end of the 'Powerplay'.
This changes the bowling order from our usual one as Riley Meredith is introduced for the 6th which is early for him. However it does not stop Bell-Drummond from moving Kent to 52 after his first ball via a Somerset Stand four. He then ramps a six over the keeper's head. The Tasmanian's first over goes for 19 and they move to 69 as Goldsworthy comes on also an over early. He bowls a tidy 5.
Lewis then comes on at the River and is subjected to a huge six into the Somerset for his troubles followed by another four and the Kent men moving to 91 with Muyeye on 42 from 21 with Bell-Drummond on 45 from 27. Ben Green is now the bowling choice in the hope that 'Golden Arm' will change the direction of this innings. Bell-Drummond's 50 comes from a sideway slap to the Caddyshack. 50 from 29 balls with 2 sixes and 6 fours. They end the over with 103 for 0 after only 9.
Henry returns and his first goes for a high sky six to the MT as Bell Drummond keeps swinging. He follows this with a one bounce four to the Ondaatje and this is becoming mayhem as our much vaunted bowling attack is taken to the cleaners. Matt Henry has gone for 37 from 15 balls!! He pulls it back a bit but it's 119 for 0 after 10.
Goldsworthy comes back on and the Kent pair continue. Muyeye was passed by his partner at 44 and he is still there while at the other end Bell-D has moved to 75!! It is 126 after 11. The skipper keeps trying to look for a solution and brings himself back on from the River but little changes as the first goes for a boundary. The rest of the over is the Bell-Drummond show as he takes another 16 off the bowler and he moves to 91 as they move very close to the highest first wicket partnership of 150 between Bell-Drummond and Denly at Canterbury in 2016 with 145 for 0.
The 150 arrives from the Bell-Drummond bat and a new highest first wicket partnership for Kent v Somerset of 151 for 0. Then Muyeye runs the two for his 50 off 31 balls - a more patient innings. Meredith comes back for the 14th with the Kent man going to 100 from his first ball from 48 balls with 12 fours and four sixes.
He is then 'caught behind' off the next ball but he appeals because SKY are here so they are having a look. He is given out for the excellent ton. As people always say at this point in a Kent game "We could have signed him you know". In comes Billings on his 34th birthday!!
Lewis Jr takes the 15th at a difficult time and does a job for his team as he bowls out against men looking for boundaries. To go for 26 from his 4 today is a worthy effort.
5 overs to go and 173 up with 30 balls to go and loads of wickets left. We look to Ben Green from some of his productive 'filth'. He goes for four from his first. But Greener gets the better of him with a full ball that Billings hits directly to Abell on the Caddyshack boundary. 180 for 2 with Billings out for 6. In comes Finch.
Gregory changes ends and Finch simply sends it into the MT over his head for six. The captain has gone for 39 from 13 balls - 3 a delivery!! Not suprisingly the Kent 200 arrives during his bowling with a Muyeye direct six to the pavilion. But the bowler comes back and bowls the Kent man who simply misses a straight one. Muyeye goes for 70 at 200 for 3. Jack Leaning is the next man in as Kent look for a total in excess of 200 with 3 overs to come. It's going to be a big one tonight..
211 for 3 with 12 balls to go and except for the last ball Green keeps them in check but Finch gets hold of the last one and sends it straight for six to move Kent to 224 for 3. Riley Meredith gets the last having already gone for 42 for his 1 wicket. This could be any kind of score!! He gets Leaning for 17 from 7 who skies one to Gregory. In comes Tom Rogers with nothing to lose and he skies his first to Overton to go back for a duck. 225 for 3 becomes 225 for 5 with 3 balls to go and Grant Stewart in to face Meredith's hat-trick ball. Stewart digs it out but it was a decent effort. and he ends with a 3 run 2 wicket over. (3 for 45). Kent score 228 (1 less than Middlesex here last game). Finch ended with 22 from 13 and Stewart had 2.
Not a great bowling performance but I'm leaving it at that given how far out I was predicting the end of the last game. This is Kent's second highest score against Someret not beating their 231 in Canterbury. Let's see if we can do the semi-impossible twice in 3 days!!
The Reply
Grant Stewart bowls to Tom Banton from the River to start the response, he takes a single and brings his partner Will Smeed on to strike. They start with 3 from the first and they are already 9 behind the required rate. The second over is taken by Klaassen. Smeed hits out and then Banton is dropped on 2 off Klasseen by Nathan Gilchrist in front of the Ondeetje Stand. We go into over number 3 on 14 and Banton punishes the drop with a six that takes one bounce on the concrete and into the river. Change of ball please at 20 for 0. Stewart may need to rethink things. He doesn't and Banton pulls him for a second six to the Gimblett scoreboard which is followed by one into the top tier of the Botham Stand. That was a no ball so the next is a free hit which is a four to the CA boundary. 39 for 0 after 3 - the RRR has dropped by 1 in that over!! There were 25 runs from that over which means Stewart's 1 over for 2 has become 2 overs for 27.
Rogers takes the next and the attack doesn't really stop though the field has adapted. 45 for 0 after 4 and then with 10 off the first 2 the 50 partnership arrives as we move to 55 with Banton on 38 from 20 and Smeed on 11 from 7. Bants goes to 50 from 22 at 4.4 overs 65 for 0 (4 fours 5 sixes). At the end of the 5th it is 72 for 0 (the DLS requires 50). Agar has just bowled his first and went for 27!!
Bants skies it but the fielder doesn't get there and they get two. To rub it in Tom then ramps one to the CA boundary. At the end of the 'Powerplay' Somerset have 81 for 0. Kent had 68 so things are moving!! But can Somerset keep it going?
Nathan Gilchrist comes on from the River. Bants puts his second into the Botham. But it has to end and it does as he gets pad first and he goes for LBW for 68 from 91 for 1. It came for 33 with 5 fours and 6 sixes. Excellent start but can we keep it going as TKC comes in.
Kent hit 102 from 9 overs. Evison is holding the ball back and stopping it coming on to the bat so there are a lot of doubles. He goes for a very healthy 7 and Somerset go to 98 for 1 after 8. Klaassen changes ends and Smeed hangs the bat out to ramp the bowler and is caught on the Ondaatje car park boundary by Bell-Drummond for 24 and it all goes back to a quieter time as Tom Abell comes in a with the score still at 98 for 2.
The 100 arrives at the 8.5 point - a run less than Kent and 2 wickets more but the game is still in the balance. How they work the next 8 or 10 overs will determine the result of this match. Tom's job is to manage the strike and punish the loose ball while letting TKC do the 'Destroyer' thing before moving the speed of scoring up.
With 10 overs done Somerset have 107 but the Kent boys accelerated through the next 5. At the moment the boundaries have dried up for the home side and they have to keep a consistent pace in this innings so the scoreboard pressure remains realistic. TKC has to start to tee off and he seems to know it. A bit of fortune gives him a boundary to a fielder's foot followed by another bottom edge one at the start of Gilchrist's 11th. He finishes it with a third four in the over and the score moves on again to 122 for 2.
Agar is brought back for his second. TKC flips his first over his shoulder for four to the CA. He then guides a second to the Hildreth to make the score needed move below 100 at 131 for 2. His fourth goes for six to the Gimblett. He then hits a four to the Ondaatje and Abell finishes with a flip to the CA scoreboard. Agar goes for 51 from his 2 and we have 147 for 2 after 12.
The 50 partnership arrives from 24 balls and they keep moving the score on as we reach 150 for 2 4 balls into the 13th from Klaassen. Evison returns at a crucial time from the MT and he gets TKC as he is caught by a sweeper on the Gimblett rope and goes for 38 from 20 at 157 for 3. This brings in Sean Dickson. He is straight off the mark with a single however.
We need 71 off 36. Tom Abell tries to ramp one but he puts it in the hands of Stewart off the bowling of Gilchrist and he goes for 22 at 159 for 4. In comes Lewis Gregory needing 70 from 34 balls. The run rate goes up to 13 per over as we get to 163 with 5 to go. The need for a 'big' over is starting to rear its ugly head.
Gregory goes for a large one and misses out as Leaning catches it on the third man boundary. He departs for 2. 166 for 5 brings Ben Green to the crease needing 62 from 24 balls and we need a whole lot of hitting for this game to keep looking close. At 16 an over it is doubtful they can maintain that for 4 overs.
Rogers takes the 17th and we get a six from the last ball by Dickson then Gilchrist takes the 18th and receives two sixes from Green at the start of his. He comes back to be fair to him but he takes him for a third at the end of the over to move the score to 199 for 5. They need 30 off 12 balls.
The Somerset 200 arrives at the start of Klassen's 19th and they need 29 to win. A couple of boundaries this over would make this really interesting. Dickson turns and flaps the ball for six to the Ondaatje car park boundary to keep this game open. They need 19 from the last over at 210 for 5.
Rogers has the uneviable job of bowling the last. Green looks to get it away and is caught on the Ondaatje boundary for a fighting 25. In comes Overton who takes a single and we need 18 with 4 balls to go. They run 2. Which means 16 off 3. He flips the four to need 12 from 2. They take the single. It's gone but what a chase that was. Craig puts the last one into the Caddyshack car park and they lose by 5 runs. Dickson is not out for 31 and Overton is undefeated on 7 and Kent win by 4 runs!!
At least we didn't die wondering with 5 overs left. If you let them get this amount of runs then you are asking for one of these. We worked well but the bowling let them get too many.
We would have taken 5 wins from 6 at this point of the time to be honest. Nearly people. On to Hampshire and Glamorgan before we go back to the CC1 in Brum next weekend.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:06:18:19:53:31 by Grockle.
Experienced international batsman Joe Denly was injured in their last match against Surrey, and is replaced by 19-year-old nephew Jaydn Denly, named in a T20 squad for the first time. Kent will also be without Test opening batsman Zak Crawley, who has been recalled by England ahead of the Indian series.
Squad; Billings (c), Agar, Bell-Drummond, Jaydn Denly, Evison, Finch, Gilchrist, Klaassen, Leaning, Muyeye, Parkinson, Rogers, Stewart.
Somerset name the same 14-man squad that was on duty in Bristol last night, with Tom Lammonby, Josh Davey and Jack Leach added to the 11 who played.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:06:14:14:10:32 by cricketjerry-mouse.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:06:15:17:06:49 by Grockle.
Top scorer for Millfield School, with close to 1,000 runs in each of his final two years, and on top of the bowling averages the season before.
Somerset were regular recruiters at Millfield, where ex-players usually made up most of the coaching staff. But Bell-Drummond had already made his Kent championship debut by the age of 18.