Somerset
Vitality Thirteen Bakers Dozen versus Surrey
By Grockle
July 2 2023
Apologies for the image - don't have one of Ish that I can use but it seemed appropriate to have a spin bowler on the story. Ish Sodhi joins the fray as a replacement for Peter Siddle. He's here for the rest of the Blast - hopefully that will include the Final and it adds a little 'sublety' to our attack. He will go into the side at the expense of Shoaib Bashir - the rest will probably be the same as pre the Notts 4 day dis-memberment. Surrey are a little fragile as Middlesex illustrated but they are the strongest side in our division besides us. Let battle commence.
v Surrey @ The Oval Friday 30 June 2023
The Somerset side only has the replacing of Shoaib Bashir by new boy Ish Sodhi as the alteration. Surrey win the toss and put the visitors in on a night where rain is a possibility though everything starts at the correct time and there is no threat early on.
Sam Curran opens for the home side against Tom Banton and the second ball reaches the boundary in a quiet over of 5 for 0. Atkinson joins his teammate with the next and Banton is less quiet taking 17 from it while Will Smeed hardly faces anything early on. One of the shots is an absolutely arrogant ramp for six and it's 22 after two. Curran isn't phased and holds the bats to 7 off the third but the Somerset plan is pretty clear.
Surrey introduce Abbott for the next to handle a quiet Smeed but an abbsolutely rampant Banton building on the confidence he has found in this tournament. An experienced bowler, he follows Will as the bat looks to make space. This cramps him up and he simply plops the ball to Tom Curran who catches the ball falling backwards. 30 for 1 and Smeed is replaced by TKC who works the ball for 3 to finish the over at 33 for 1.
Jordan enters the fight for the fifth and is not helped in setting the tone when a misfield on the boundary allows a four. To be fair, the ball hits the ground and deviates away from the fielder who had no chance. His second ball is absolutely smashed for four by the new man and the third is a one bounce version. Jacks shold have had Surrey's second before the end of the over as he fails to hold on to a catch twice. That is it but the score has moved to 46 for the loss of only 1.
Abbott's second and Surrey's fifth starts with TKC sending the ball into the stand to bring up the Somerset 50 and the Powerplay results in 66 runs with the Somerset number 3 with 26 off 13 balls. Atkinson is risked again for the 7th and a TKC six at the end takes 10 off the over. The score coontinues to move and so Surrey turn to spin with Narine introduced to take the pace off the ball. As an answer to the commentator saying "No one sweeps Narine" Tom Banton produces the most amazing revrse sweep into the digital scoreboard. Absolutely brilliant shot. 88 for 1 after 8.
In Lawes 9th over Jacks repays his side of the earlier drop by hanging on to one from a full ball which TKC doesn't get enough of. He leaves with 39 from 23 balls - absolutely bludgeoning the ball with total confidence in his ability to get past fielders. It doesn't always work but it does get into the heads of the opposition. 88 for 2. Jacks then goes back to the nightmare as he almost immediately drops Tom Banton at 90. It's a good Surrey over but they may rue not getting the young Somerset man.
Abbott holds the visitors to 99 by the end of the halfway over but the 100 comes up with the second ball of the following Lawes over. His third ball is sent for six to bring up Banton's 50 off 29 balls at 112 for 2. A leg side four moves the score to 116. The new man Tom Abell is not going to have a long stay at the wicket in this game as Narine has HIS reverse sweep caught by Lawes at deep Third to bring in Tom Lammonby at 118 for 3. The 12th over ends at 122.
The 13th adds 8 before the beginning of the 14th sees Narine bowl Tom L for 10 at 130. However Banton is still there and produces his fourth six to take the score to 140 for 4 at the end of the West Indian's over. The commentary team makes a lot of how Surrey bat to "Eleven and a half" inferring that we don't. The next man in is Ben Green one wonders if they have seen him bat.
Green straight sixes Lawes ball 1 and Banton sends another to the stands ball four before missing out on a full toss on the next one. However the last huge shot took the visitors over 150 with 5 overs to go. A 200 score is on definitely so Surrey may have to bat to the last man. To point this out Green sixes the last ball as well taking the Surrey bowler for 22 off the over.
Narine is back for the 16th and Somerset take him for 10 without loss beforfe the death ball bnowling of Curran and Jordan look to keep the batting in check. The 17th sees Banton finally go for an excellent 84 off 44 with the 5th ball. Kasey Aldridge comes out to join Green at 186 for 5. Jordan can't hold Ben who takes him for consecutive fours to push the score to 196. A single brings the 200 up at the start of Curran's penultimate over with Green on 38 off the 19 balls he has faced.
The last over starts at 205 for 5 and Chris Jordan shows his class as a white ball 'death' bowler when he holds a rampant batting line-up to 208 requiring Surrey's "eleven and a half" to score 209 for the win they need to confirm their own qualification - or at least move it very much forward.
The Reply
Jacks and Evans come out with a real fight on their hands. However, Jacks has been on fire with the bat during 2023 and this side are totally capable of getting this total at the Oval. Facing them is Craig Overton who gives away only a single before having Evans dropped by Henry (easy chance). The first over goes for 3. We then go to the aforementioned Matt Henry for the second and he gets the aforementioned Evans to hhiit the ball striaght to COve who doesn't drop it and Surrey are 8 for 1 with Narine striding to the crease.
Overton is up for this and he goes through Jacks early in his next while Narine seems to be tradiing only in boundaries as he hits 2 fours early in his innnings. Henry continues the Somerset attack and Narine continues to hit fours but his 5th attempt to reach the boundary does not pass TKC in the inner ring and it is 26 for 2 as Sam Curran, his replacement comes in.
Jacks has got his eye in now and Sam Curran gets almost no look in as his batting partner scoops an insolent six followed by a four off Overton. 38 for 2 becomes over 50 in Matt's next as Jacks reaches the boundary twice. That's the score the Powerplay ends on. Ben Green gets no more from Surrey as his first full toss is helped into the crowd by Jacks. The Somerset bowler tightens up but another loose ball at the end of the over finds the rope. 65 for 2 after 7 - behind the required rate but still in sight of the total with overs and wickets in hand.
Josh Davey takes up the bowling offence but while striving for a yorker length he fails too often and goes for 16 in his first and that included and excelelnt boundary save by Kasey Aldridge on his last ball. Fiinally we see Sodhi in a Somerset shirt for the 9th and a coupld of singles by Jacks gets him to 50 before he misreads the Kiwi spinner and is caught by TKC for that 50 at 84 for 3. The first Ish wicket is immediately followed by a second as he has Smith LBW first ball. Abbott doesn't give him a hat-trick but the spinner ends his first over with 2 for 4 and Surrey are behind the 'eight ball' at 85 for 4.
COve is bowled out with the 10th as Somerset feel they have Surrey on the ropes. It is also COve v JOve which is always good stuff after Craig is all over Abbott for 2 balls before setting him up and getting him knicking to Banton for 85 for 5. His borther get little off him as he finishes the over with 87. Sodhi is back for the next and adds more pressure as Surrey struggle to get after him and have only 92 by the end of the 11th. Green takes the 12th and the 100 arrives from a Curran single but the end result is only 103 and 209 is getting further and further away. Jamie feels he needs to go for it and gambles twice during the next Ish over. He succeeds both time with sixes and a score of 118 for 5 to get back some f the momentum back for his side.
Davey is not having a great game. He is still working to get his length right and while that is happening Jamie goes down the ground to him with a straight six followed by a four and another later six. Josh has gone for 33 from his 2 - it isn't going to be his night one thinks and we start to wonder about his role at the end of the game seeing as we have bowled others out. 136 for 5 still keeps Surrey on this with 6 over to go. 73 needed off 36 is still possible.
Enter Ben Green once more this year. He comprehensively bowls Jamie with the first ball of his next over and one might think that is Surrey's fight over. it isn't true but it does make the game much harder for them. In comes Tom Curran who is no slouch with the bat. Green has got his yorker length nailed and he nearly get Sam C&B with his 5th. 141 for 6 at the end of his six balls.
Abell stays with Josh for the 16th (he hasn't bowled Kasey at all yet) with Surrey needing 68 fr. om 30. A loose ball brings up the 150 and it is 155 for 6. 44 needed. Sodhi bowls out and gets Tom Curran courtesy of a Tom Lammonby catch (he has been excellent in the outfield tonight) bringing Jordan to the crease needing 51 from 20. He finishes with 3 for 33 off 4 - a decent debut.Green takes the penultimate over as is now normal and despite a Jordan six second ball he does his job ending with 1 for 42 but that being a vital wicket at a vital time.
And so we reach the last over. The maths is pretty easy. Surrey need 30 from 6 with Chris Jordan on strike. Facing the Surrey man is Josh Davey the most expensive Somerset bowler of the night but this is not his first rodeo. The first ball is a dot yorker (he's found his length). 30 from 5. There is a wide and a no ball but the rest are all singles until the last ball which is a straight six when there was no chance of a win. Surrey finish on 190 for 9 and lose by 18 runs. Seems the "eleven and a half" couldn't get the job done and Somerset go to 11 wins from 13. Really controlled and focussed win with many peple coming up with performances around the truly good Banton innings.
Surrey have to face Essex on Sunday to get themselves into the knockout phase. Somerset face Kent looking to be the first and only T20 side to win 12 games in the league phase of the Blast. Whatever happens we win our division and face someone at Taunton next week for a place at Finals Day. I wouldn't want to face us... but we are still not there and need to keep this going until the 15th of July.... or the 16th to be really Champions.
It is ON but it is most definitely not OVER yet.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:07:03:22:23:38 by Grockle.
Somerset will remain top of their league whatever the result, as they are currently four points ahead of second-placed Surrey. The match is already a sell-out.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:07:02:11:16:30 by Grockle.
Taking into account that they won't be changing the top four and Green, Overton, Henry, Davey and Sodhi will play (they won't name those they are resting here surely) then the question is only if they will play Goldsworthy and if so who will he replace. Probably won't be Dickson.
😁🤣👍
Becoming less of a fan of sponsored partisan commentary teams game by game. From ball 1 this was a game for Surrey to lose with their phenomenal bowling attack and their batting line-up.that "bat to 11 and a half".
Well we hit em for 208 then restricted their order to 190. And Josh had a bad night. But even then we didn't really beat them... they under-performed it seems
Great efforts from Banton, TKC, Green, Craig, Matt and Ish!!
“The great thing about Narine is nobody EVER sweeps him.
Next ball? Banton reverse sweeps him for a big six!! 😂
And, er, that wasn't too shabby, was it?
Smeed fails? So Banton and TKC step up to the plate, with Ben Green joining the fun and games. Okay, so it looked like 215-220 or more might have been on the cards for a while, but the first two overs from Overton and Henry meant that Surrey were always chasing.
Well done. Very well done.
It was against the Surrey of Stewart, Thorpe et al. We were the yokels from the West. George was interviewed before the game and said he expected Somerset to win. We did. In every part of the game we out performed the superstars in front of a full house at Taunton. I witnessed more than one Surrey fan being escorted out because they simply could not handle being beaten well.
It's the poor old Sam Curran 'peasant' attitude that he and they will never really live down unfortunately. It isn't necessarily the club itself however who have congratulted Somerset for the win tjis morning on social media and I think are streaming our highlights package (equally poor commentary/summary - most of our highlights packages seem a little rushed and unscripted tbh)
Isn't George Burns and American actor/comedian who lived to 100 and played God in at least one film?
Yet despite all that I enjoyed the evening enormously for two reasons.
Secondly, because from Banton's very first glorious four Somerset were almost always in charge, with batting heroics from the brilliant Banton, TKC and Green, excellent bowling by Overton (the real one), Henry and Sodhi and ceaselessly energetic and effective fielding. I don't like to read so much criticism of Lammonby on this site; he scored ten off eight balls and his fielding was superb, racing across or around the field to pick up and throw with his left hand in one seemingly seamless movement. So the cricket was great (and I even enjoyed the batting of the fake Overton, though I'm glad it didn't last too long)
Firstly, and much more importantly, I was accompanied by my ten-year-old grandson, himself a very keen cricketer, attending his first senior match. Of course he loved all the razzamataz (which I have to acknowledge is not designed for the delight of octogenarians), but it was the cricket that absorbed his attention. What could be a better introduction for a little chap than to see the striking of 21 sixes (Sur 12: Som 9) and 31 fours (Sur 11: Som 20). And what really pleased his ancient grandad was that he was soon talking about "we" as Somerset increasingly took control. (No pressure there!)
I took him home to stay the night with us and for half an hour he was practising his strokes in the living room and then this morning at his instigation he and his uncle and I went to the common for an hour of vigorous cricket. We took a football with us but that was soon discarded in favour of a bat.
And what added to the delight of young Theo was that yesterday evening's match was played at THEOval.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Tbh, Tom C is pretty poor at cricket!!
Quote:I didn't know that - and I always like to learn new things. And I very nearly made the AGod gog myself...!Grockle
Mike was always called 'George' sorry should have put it in quotes
It is an 'I was there' moment I'm sure.
Sounds like you had an excellent evening.
It was the Natwest semi in 1999 - Mike Burns played but he wasn't captain. Jamie Cox was and scored a ton.
But the Surrey side had 2 SKY commentators in it, Butcher and Ward plus Bicknell, both Hollioakes, Saqlain, Salisbury, Ali Brown plus Thorpe and Stewart
We had Marcus at 5!! Kerr, Jones and Caddick as our bowling attack and no spinner. We scored 315 for 8 and bowled them out for 195 with Keith Parsons taking 4 for 43 to win by 120
The Day Surrey got Stuffed
I even wrote a report on it which I may finally get into a Grockle's archive book if I can ever get myself to go through the archives and sort out the content. Fancy putting some more photos in a book Mike?
Farmer
I would counsel Theo, in later years, not to have a partner called Val. A girl called Penelope might prove a better escape.
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