Somerset vs Sussex Sharks

Somerset vs Sussex Sharks: Match Report

Ben Green claimed four wickets as holders Somerset leapfrogged Sussex Sharks into second place in the Vitality Blast South Group with a six-wicket victory at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.

The visitors could post only 158 for nine after losing the toss, Harrison Ward top-scoring with a rapid 39 and medium-pacer Green finishing with four for 17 from three overs.

In reply, Somerset made 162 for four with 2.2 overs to spare, George Thomas blasting 42, with 7 fours, Tom Abell 47 not out and Sean Dickson 28. Tymal Mills was the most successful Sharks bowler with two for 28.

The result ensured Somerset of a quarter-final place and made them favourites to secure a home tie with one group game left to play.

The batting highlights of the Sharks’ six-over powerplay were Daniel Hughes’ three successive fours in the third over, bowled by Craig Overton, and the first six of the match struck by Ward off Jake Ball in the fifth over.

Hughes had fallen earlier in that over, miscuing a pull shot to mid-on and at the end of the powerplay Sussex were 49 for one. That became 66 for one when Ward greeted the introduction of Jack Leach with a four and six off his first two deliveries.

But the England left-arm spinner quickly struck back by having the opener caught sweeping after facing 23 balls, and that was as good as it got for the visitors as Somerset turned the screw in the middle overs.

Green struck twice in his first over, removing Tom Clark and John Simpson to catches in the deep, including a diving effort from George Thomas, and at the halfway point in their innings the Sharks were struggling on 71 for four.

Tom Alsop was dropped by Thomas off the first ball of the 13th over, sent down by Green, but perished to the next delivery as Overton pouched a comfortable catch at mid-on off a full toss.

James Coles, who hit a brisk 26, and Nathan McAndrew (20) paid the penalty for testing Dickson’s arm from the boundary edge and were both run out attempting to turn one run into two, while Green claimed his fourth wicket when the same fielder held a simple catch off McAndrew.

The Sussex total never looked likely to be enough. So it proved, as Tom Banton and Thomas got Somerset off to a flyer with a stand of 34 in four overs, ended when Banton clipped a catch to deep square off Mills’ first ball of the game.

At the end of the powerplay the hosts were 56 for one, with Thomas and Tom Kohler-Cadmore going well. They took the score to 70 in the eighth over when Thomas was caught at long-on off Danny Lamb, having faced 30 balls and enhanced his growing reputation as replacement for the injured Will Smeed.

Abell survived a caught and bowled chance to Mills, but the pace bowler struck later in the tenth over as Kohler-Cadmore, on 20, lofted a catch to deep cover. It mattered little as Abell and Dickson both cleared the ropes and Dickson ended any doubt about the result with three successive boundaries at the start of the 13th over.

With ten runs needed, Dickson was run out by Clark’s direct hit from the boundary, having done his job.

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