Blast Game 12 - Simple Beat the Pears!!
By Grockle
July 12 2026
The job is simple here. We need to beat Worcestershire tonight to qualifty for the Quartter Finals on Wednesday. All the other bits are fluff after that. If we llose our 2026 Blast is done if we don't we move on to the next stage. Worcestershire have won the toss and will bowl first. Jack Leach will play tonight taking Josh Thomas' place.
Blast Game 12 - v Worcestershire @ Taunton Sunday 12 July 2026
We welcome the 'Pears' here tonight in 'best team goes on' game at the end of this topsy turvy season T20. We are lucky to be here - with a little bit of improved performance thrown in from the boys. After the Northants games we must be confident but we still have to put it together and we are known for not always getting it right.
Worcestershire have won the toss and will bowl against this Somerset tonight;
Smeed, Rew T (wk), Rew J, TKC, Goldsworthy, Gregory (c), Sams, Overton, Leach, Meredith, Ball
We bring in Jack for Josh to add something hopefully to our spin attack, especially as we did not need Gregory to bat in the Friday game. Maybe he will be needed tonight. We have some confidence after the last week but there is some doubt about playing these visitors on one of our wickets. We will just have to see at 6:35 (because SKY have decided to change the games they covered and so we had to alter things for them).
Of we go - Worcestershire shirts are nice but almost impossible to decipher in terms of numbers and names!! Taylor opens the bowling from the River. Smeed is facing and hits the first boundary to the Caddyshack off the third ball. At the MT end Bayers Swanepoel will take the first with the score on 6 for 1. Will puts him to the boundary on the Somerset side though it doesn't go all the way and it puts Thomas Rew on strike. He is off the mark with a boundary to the Ondaatje after an injudicious shot before it. We have 15 after 2.
Ben Allison takes the third and Will takes him for a bondary to the CA first up as well. We then score the first Somerset stand six and we end the over on 34 for 0. At the end of the 4th Somerset have 47 from 4 as Taylor continues (he has only gone for 67 which tells you what the other bowlers have put up with!!
Thomas hits him for six into the Gimblett and we have 50 at 54 for 0 with Will on 28 and Thomas on 25. After 5 we have 59 for 0. Waite takes the 6th and gets the same treatment as Thomas puts him into the 'Fan Village' before sending another one to take him to 42 from 19 balls. He then looks to pull one, slightly misses it, it bounces onto the top of his pad and falls off to knock the bail off so he is bowled at 75 for 1.
The 'Powerplay' today is bigger than the Northants one on Friday at 75 for 1. With TKC in and Will on 32. Finch will bowl the 7th and after Smeedy does the four off the first ball Tom KC gets off the mark in the same way through the infield to the Ondaatje. They have moved to 89 from 7. Usama Mir will bring spin into the equation for the 8th over. His first ball is in and out and far too good TKC and he is LBW for 6 at 89 for 2. A brilliant first ball. He is a bowler who is a flurry of arms and legs in his approach plus what looks like a significant amount of skill with the ball. We finish it at 95 for 2.
Waite stays on for the 9th and the rate has calmed down and they have moved to 99 for 2 as we move into the 9th. The 100 arrives with a Rew single from the first ball. A six off the last ball, the first from James keeps the 11 an over going and at the halfway point we have 109 for the loss of 2 wickets.
Will goes to 50 from 29 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes at 115 for 2 in the 11th from Taylor. Smeed goes for 52 in a subdude catch to Isaac which he may have thought was a bump ball but was a full toss straight to he fielder. It's 117 for 3 as Lewis Goldsworthy comes to the middle.
Allison changes ends for the 12th and the 'Pears' pull it back to 123 and hold it at 129 at the end of it - down to less than 10 an over. Mir is back at the MT for the 14th. He takes Lewis Goldsworthy who holes out to Swanepoel from the spinner to go for 9 at 133 for 4. In comes the skipper and he is off the mark with a single to end the 14th at 134.
At 15 we have 143 for 4 and there is then a VAR about a good piece of boundary fielding where a fielder saves a six batting it back on to save the boundary and keep it to two. Mir is back for his last as the 16th and ends at the 150 for 4 and he finishes with 2 for 28 and should be happy with that.
Taylor then bowls out with the 17th as Worcestershire look to keep this score under 200. Lewis keeps them trying with a hooked six to the Gimblett scoreboard followed by a slapped four to the Somerset to follow it up. It moves us to 163 form 17 as Allison is back for the 18th. His first goes to the Ondaatje car park from the captain. But Allison comes back and yorks him with the next bal to walk back for 28 from 16 balls and in comes Daniel Sams who is now our 'finisher' in these games. We need him to finish this!!
He takes two to get off the mark and then takes another to move us to 174 at the end of the over. With 2 to go we have 174 - would like 200 in 12 balls time guys please!!
Waite takes the penultimate over from the River and he has James Rew LBW for 28 off his first.. In comes Craig Overton who gets off the mark and gets Daniel on strike who then deposits into the CA Long Room balcony. He looks to try again but is caught by Cullen off Waite for 10 at 183 for 7. In comes Jack Leach who takes a run and streals the strike from Cove with an over to go from Swanepoel.
He then gets off the strike immediately off a no ball and the next is a free hit. with 6 to come for Craig. He gets a single. Jack does the same. They then run two to move to 190 with 3 to go. They run another two. Then it's a single and another single so we finish on 194 for 7. Worcestershire need 195.
The Reply
As always, Craig starts from the River against Isaac and Cullen. Isaac will face the first and he is off the mark. Cullen one with some sharp fielding from the Somerset spinner running round. The first boundary comes at the end of the over from Isaac's bat and it is 8 for 0 after 1. Meredith bowls from the MT and we all wonder which Riley we will get tonight. We get the 'halfway' one as he goes for 8 with a streaky boundary. Worcester have 16 after 2.
31 from 3 as Jake Ball comes on to bowl and again we ask. Which Jake are we going to see? Well we are goin to see the one who can take wickets as Dan Sams shows what a boundary fielder he is with an absolutely stupendous catch in front of the CA scoreboard to send Cullen on his way for 18 at 35 for 1. 37 for 1 after the 4th as Meredith changes ends and he has Isaac skying one into the buckets that are Overton's hands. He goes for 17 at 37 for 2 and out comes D'Oiveira to take his place. They move on to 42 for 2. Craig changes ends to the MT but his first is ramped to the CA anyway. His second is flashed hard to bring up the 50 with Roderick on 9 and D'Oliveira as 4.
The 'Powerplay' results in 52 for 2 and we bring Lewis Goldsworthy into the game. On comes Jack and first ball is caught by Overton so D'Oliveira leaves for 8 off 10 at 58 for 3 and in comes Kashif Ali. Leachy goes for 11 and they move to 69 for 3. One thing we have to remember is that we accelerated away and then were slowed down very sharpplky when Mir came on to bowl so comparisons are not much good at the moment.
After 9 it is 74 for 3 with Kashif on 5 off 5 and Roderick on 23 and Sams is on at the MT to take us to half time. He takes us there with another wicket as Kashif thnks about hooking and then decides not to but does't get his bat out of the way. He goes for 6 at 80 for 8. At 10 the Rapids have 82 for 4. They need 113 from 60 balls.
So the sides turn around and Goldsworthy continues. Then Jack takes over and after a couple of sighters he gets Swanepoel with an arm bal,l he completely fools hinm and bowls him for 6. In comes Matthew Waite at 92 for 5. They pass 100 with a six to the Somerset and Lewis Goldsworthy ends with 28 from his 4 which shows how good 23 of the balls were 105 for 5 as Jack continuesand gets another as Roderick inside edges and is bowled for 39 at 107 for 6 and in comes Taylor and the England spinner leaves them neeing 87 from 36.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:14:22:38:54 by Grockle.
Grizzers
I wonder whether Tom Banton will be available but, to be honest, the current opening pair deserve to carry on.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:13:12:37:23 by Grockle.
Had they won they'd have gone through to the knockout stage; as it is they were bottom of what was obviously a very, very tight group.
Somerset started well - stuffing Hants and beating Warks - but then got slaughtered by Glamorgan and Gloucester and lost a close game to Warks. At that point it all looked done and dusted, so fair play to the team for turning that around!
Even yesterday, I suspect Somerset would have wanted a score north of 200, but their score was defendable and in the end the margin of victory massive. Somerset's NRR was also the second highest in any of the group, behind only Northants.
And finally a lot of Somerset's players are fit again and have found or are still in form: the Rews, Smeed, Sams (after some critical comments here...), T K-C, Gregory, Meredith, and a big shout-out to the slow-bowling selection who have really contributed: POTM for Leachy!
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
If Carlsberg did subs, eh.