County Cricket: Record-Breaking Somerset Bag the Blast

It can be difficult supporting Somerset. Not that we are bad. We’re not. We have been in the top tier of the County Championship longer than most, won the One-Day Cup at Lord’s in 2019 and are regular qualifiers for the Blast Finals Day. It’s just that, like England Men’s football team, the expectation is that we will probably bow out in the semis or final. Coming second is what we do best, and it can be sickening. 

Cricket has changed since the late Seventies and early Eighties, Somerset’s golden era. Year after year, we could enjoy performances by the likes of Richards, Garner, Botham, Rose, Marks, Moseley, Denning et al. These days, you never know who might appear on the team sheet, such is the schedule minefield of global international and franchise cricket. However, it only takes one blistering innings to win a T20, whoever they may be. 

In the first semi at Edgbaston, it was Tom Kohler-Cadmore whose 81 laid the foundation for Somerset’s defeat of Lancashire. Ben Green, Lewis Gregory and Migael Pretorius completed the job with the ball. In the other semi, reduced to eighteen overs, Northamptonshire never really got off the blocks. Earlier in the tournament, they had racked up three of the four highest totals but when it really mattered, they amassed only 158-7. When Hampshire replied, Saif Zaib caused all sorts of problems, but not to veteran Aussie Chris Lynn. Despite his long career, I know little about him but his amazing 108 not out included no fewer than eleven sixes and the game was won with plenty to spare. 

And so it was Hampshire vs Somerset under the lights. I have been to only two live one-day finals supporting my county and both featured the same opposition. At Cardiff in 2012, Somerset capitulated miserably to Dmitri Mascarenhas’ Royals at the semi-final stage but in 2019 I witnessed Tom Abell lifting the 50-over cup after a surprisingly smooth chase. What would 2025 deliver? 

Hampshire’s successful 2012 Blast side featured James Vince and, now 34 years of age, he was again in good nick. Lynn was caught on the boundary early on but Vince and Toby Albert blazed away with abandon, adding 97 in just under ten overs. Vince also fell in the deep, for 52 but young Albert, the competition’s top scorer, continued to 85, when Gregory clipped his off stump. The momentum was lost but a total of 194-6 challenged Somerset to achieve a record run chase in a final if they were to take the crown. It looked unlikely. 

Would Kohler-Cadmore repeat those heroics? No, but it was to be the day for his opening partner Will Smeed to excel. Still only 23, the Taunton-educated right-hander has never played top-level red-ball cricket but is one of the most destructive T20 batsmen in England. On 94, he crunched Scott Currie hard and flat on it way to the six which would have given him the first-ever Final century, but that man Vince was in the way. Sean Dickson and Gregory still had plenty to do. The former was fortunate to watch Currie drop a sitter, which could have altered the course of the match but it was the ever-dependable captain Gregory who eased the tension with two sixes off Currie’s final over, the winning flick sailing over square leg. 

I don’t know how many of this team will be there to defend the title next summer but as long as you have Lewis Gregory and a squad filled with economical spinners, strong seamers and match-winning openers slotting in as required, anything is possible.

Princely Albert steers Hampshire to 100% record

This week, I’ll start with news that we may have seen the last of two great stalwarts of the county game. James Hildreth is one of the most prolific batsmen in Somerset’s history, and hugely popular in and around Taunton. In both 2005 and 2019 he struck the winning runs in the T20 Blast and One-Day Cup, respectively but in the past few seasons has struggled. Last week, he announced his retirement at the end of the summer but another injury, after a score of 12 versus Durham, has forced him to bring it forward. He never played for England, and neither did Darren Stevens who, at 45, will be released by Kent. He has enjoyed some of his best seasons in the Championship since passing 40 but has been used sparingly in 2022. Unlike Hildy, he wants to keep going, but who would take a punt on someone of his age? I think it’s best to retire gracefully and stay in the game as a coach, and be remembered as a brutal batsman and consistently nagging medium-pacer par excellence.

In this week’s RL 50-over fixtures, Somerset slumped to another three defeats, as did Glamorgan in Group B. At least the former pushed Middlesex almost all the way at Taunton, the last pair getting the Group A leaders across the line with four balls remaining. Middlesex skipper Steve Eskinazi made it three consecutive centuries, including 182 in 136 deliveries in the London derby. Surrey also took a pasting at Hove, where Sussex crushed them by 216 runs. Captain Cheteshwar Pujara plundered twenty fours and five sixes in his 174, one of two tons this week. Who’d have thought the dour Test batsman could be such a wonderful one-day strokeplayer?

Another captain, Essex’s Tom Westley, also made it two sets of three figures during the last seven days, including 109 against Kent, and seventeen year-old leg-spinner Luc Benkenstein, son of the former Durham all-rounder Dale, claimed 6-42 in the win over Glamorgan.

However, it’s Hampshire who lead Group B with an unblemished record so far. It wasn’t a smooth run. They squeezed past Derbyshire and close rivals Lancashire by just two wickets, and have 21 year-old bowler John Turner  and the even younger batsman Toby Albert to thank. The latter steered them home each time with well-judged unbeaten half-centuries. Definitely two to watch in a week when two veterans seemed at the end of their careers.

Team of the Week: Eskinazi (Mid), Patel (Sur), Westley (Ess), Pujara (Sus), Kimber (Lei), Bracey (Glo +), Albert (Ham), Trevaskis (Dur), Karvelas (Sus), Benkenstein (Ess), Turner (Ham)