Somerset v Essex Eagles
Royal London One-Day Cup
Friday 26 April
Taunton, Somerset
Somerset Team: Azhar Ali, Tom Banton (wk), Peter Trego, James Hildreth, Tom Abell (c), George Bartlett, Lewis Gregory, Roelof van der Merwe, Craig Overton, Josh Davey, Tim Groenewald.
Essex Eagles Team: Paul Walter, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley, Dan Lawrence, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate (c), Robbie White (wk), Simon Harmer, Peter Siddle, Matt Quinn, Sam Cook.
Toss: Essex won the toss and elected to field.
Umpires: Jeremy Lloyds & Jeff Evans.
Result: Somerset win by 36 runs.
Match Report
The Essex Eagles suffered their third defeat in as many matches when Somerset won a rain-affected Royal London One-Day Cup clash at Taunton by 36 runs under the DLS method.
Peter Trego and Azhar Ali punished the Eagles attack underpinning the home side’s mammoth 353 for 5 and in reply, the Eagles posted 154 for 6 in an innings twice interrupted for rain.
The rain had caused a 2 hour delay to the start and reduced the match to 39 overs per side but Trego and Ali rewarded the crowd for their patience with a powerful display of batting.
The Somerset pair both completed centuries, striking the ball cleanly and powerfully to combine for a second wicket partnership worth 217 in 27 overs.
Peter Siddle emerged as the standout bowler for the Eagles with figures of 4 for 60.
Ali finally holed out to Simon Harmer for 110 to give Paul Walter a wicket and leave the hosts 220 for 2 in the 29th over while Trego was eventually bowled by Siddle for 141. He had faced 101 balls and struck 6 sixes and 11 fours.
After just 5 balls of the Eagles reply, rain arrived to reduce their allocation to 33 overs and a revised target of 311.
Upon the resumption, Walter was caught behind for 1, then Alastair Cook, having uppercut a ball from Josh Davey over the ropes, was caught behind for 15.
With 10 overs of the Eagles reply necessary for a positive result to be achieved and further rain threatening to scupper Somerset’s hopes, the home side introduced spinner Roelof van der Merwe to speed through a couple of overs.
Tom Westley and Dan Lawrence carried the score from 24 to 51 before Westley was bowled by van der Merwe for 32 to leave the Eagles 75 for 3 in the 11th over. An over later with 7 further runs accrued, another stoppage for rain occurred.
When the final act of the match began, the Eagles target was 109 runs from 5 overs. Ravi Bopara was an early casualty before Lawrence posted a rapid 31 ball half-century before being caught for 51.
Falling further behind their target over by over, all that remained was for ten Doeschate to bludgeon a quickfire 35 from 14 balls, ending when he was caught on the boundary.
Anthony McGrath’s men will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on Hampshire at The Cloudfm County Ground on Sunday.
