Somerset beat Notts Semi Final Royal London Cup May 12th

Somerset v Notts Semi Final Royal London Cup May 12th at Trent Bridge

Neil Whitaker reports

SOMERSET beat the Nottinghamshire Outlaws by 155 runs  and over nine overs to to spare to reach their first Lord’s final since they were beaten by Surrey in 2011.

Somerset captain Tom Abell said: “It feels very special to be going to a Lord’s final and it’s been a long time since we’ve been involved in one.  It’s always tough in a quarter and semi final. And Nottinghamshire are an outstanding team.  Our bowling has been pronominal all season and today was no different.  We wer’nt as good as we should have been in the field but we are peaking at the right time.  I am very happy with the way we played,everyone was fantastic and it was a good team effort.

At half time I felt that we had a good score on the board and was very happy with that.  When you’re chasing 340 you need to bat well for long periods of time.”

Outlaws skipper Steven Mullaney said: “We were out batted,outbowld and out fielded by Somerset, they deserved to win.  We should have chased down that score but our batters got in and then got out.  To win a 50 over match you need batsmen when can get runs.”

It turned out to be the Overton twins show.  With the bat they shared in a ninth wicket partnership of 48 which saw Somerset past 300,a score which they looked like passing easily but at 289 for eight it looked beyond them.  With the ball at least one of them was involved in five dismissals.

In their chase the Outlaws lost their first wicket in the seventh over when Joe Clarke drilled Craig Overton off his legs to Azhar Aliat short mid wicket.  Up to then both Clarke and Ben Slater didn’t look in any difficulty.

Alex Hales a simple push of Josh Davey into Radcliffe road stand for his first six.  The script was written for Hales to get a big score and see the Outlaws home for the final.  It looked like it would be Hales’match.  Hales guided Gregory through the vacant slip area to the third man boundary to briSOMERSET beat the Nottinghamshire Outlaws by runs  to reach their first Lord’s final since they were beaten by Surrey in 2011.

It turned out to be the Overton twins show.  With the bat they shared in a ninth wicket partnership of 48 which saw Somerset past 300,a score which they looked like passing easily but at 289 for eight it looked beyond them.  With the ball at least one of them was involved in five dismissals.

In their chase the Outlaws lost their first wicket in the seventh over when ClarIn their chase the Outlaws lost their first wicket in the seventh over when Clarke drilled Craig Overton off his legs to Azhar Aliat short mid wicket.  Up to then both Clarke and Slater didn’t look in any difficulty.

Hales a simple push of Davey into road stand for his first six.  The script was written for Hales to get a big score and see the Outlaws home for the final. He guided Lewis Gregory through the vacant slip area to the third man boundary to bring up his fifty which included six fours and a six from 42 balls.

At the other end Slater effortlessly pulled Jamie Overton for a six over square leg.  A cover drive to the boundary by Slater off Gregory brought up the fifty partnership with Hales in eight overs.  Slater ended the over with a couple to bring up his 50 off 52 balls.

With Slater and Hales threatening to run amok, Slater chipped Jamie Overton to Van Der Merwe at short mid wicket who had to leap to his left.  Ben Duckett reversed slogged Van Der Merwe to Craig Overton on the point boundary.Patel tried sweeping Van Der Merwe and was leg before.

Van Der Merwe picked up his third wicket when Moores took a couple of paces down the wicket and drove to Jamie Overton on the long off boundary.

Hales cut one which was too close to him and got big on him from Craig Overton and stumper Banton did the rest leaping to his right.  With the departure of Hales the dreams of the Outlaws ended.

Mullaney got off the mark with and edge off Craig Overton that went through the vacant slip area to the boundary.  On 29 he moved too far over to Davey and lost his leg stump.

Carter was caught in the deep having a slog at Azhar Ali and in the next over Ball drove Davey to Abell in the covers.  

Peter Trego top scored with 73 but Somerset’s score of 337 was well short off it looked like the Cidermen would get at one stage.  After a cautious start the Somerset openers Blanton and Azhar Ali went ballistic in the 10th over when Blanton lofted Carter twice in his first two overs over mid on.  The first was a four and the second was a six which brought up the fifty partnership with Azhar Ali. Carter’s second over cost him 24 runs with three sixes.  The partnership was broken in Gurney’s first over when Blanton tried to run him down to third man but edged him to Moores.

FULL SCORECARD