20/20 Tournament

v Glamorgan @ Sophia Gardens 22 June 2005

Scorecard

v Worcestershire @ Taunton 23 June 2005

Scorecard

The loss of two points on the basis of losing more wickets was hard to take last night but it also put the pressure on this game because if we fell 4 points behind after only two games we would find it hard to get back.  Once more, Smiffy has limited resources.  Effectively, the 13 players named are all he has!  No Laraman, no Johnson, no John Francis, no Mike Burns, but he does have a fit Caddick...although this isn't his format.  He goes with Caddy over Mike Parsons and brings Arul Suppiah in to replace Burnsy.  No place for Rob Turner either.

Worcestershire won the toss and chose to bat.  We had men in chicken suits trying to catch eggs (the competition is sponsored by Blackacre Farm Eggs), there were two enourmous eggs in eggcups on the boundary for batsmen to aim at.  Hit one and a charity got £500.  We had 'Stumpy' we had a full house (although there were many many new faces and a few older ones missing). We had "Is this the way to Amarillo" god knows how many times as the Somerset anthem and a good time seemed to be had by all.

The cricket?  Oh Yes.  Well Smith and Wood came out to open for us. Malik opened the bowling for them and finds our captain wanting to go off like a bullet.  He nearly runs Matt out going for his first run and only manages 2 off the first over.  The Old Pavilion over is bowled by de Bruyn and Smith is down the wicket to him without a sighter first ball and snicks it straight into the keeper's gloves.  Calm down Graeme, you can take a couple of balls to get yourself in!  We are 3 for 1 and Keith Parsons is the next man in.  He has a couple and then swings high and handsome for 4, but is LBW next ball and we are 7 for 2.  All this time (not long I know but...) Matt Wood has been stood up the other end watching the mayhem.  It's only the second over and we're two men down!

Carl Gazzard arrives and makes his intentions clear with a straight four off his first ball.  Right, we all think let's watch Woody hold one end down while Gazza puts the bowling to the sword at the other.  Are we in for a surprise?  It's 20 for 2 by the end of the 3rd and it is Matt who lets fly!  In the 4th, he smashes 4 consecutive fours off the bowling of Malik and another one brings up the 50 just before the end of the 5th.  It's 53 for 2 and Wood has 40 of them!  Everything goes and these are glorious shots, there's very little slogging, he just picks his spot and places the ball there.

Spin comes on in the 6th and the Carl welcomes it by placing the first ball into the scoreboard side trees.  But it is all Matt Wood.  He brings up his 50 off 28 balls with another six and we have hammered along to 75 for 2 by the end of the 6th over!!  By the 8th we have 100 as Mighty Matt deposits the ball into the Old Pavilion and then into the shop area from consecutive balls.  Batty tries to stem the tide but there is excellent running between the wickets when they are not dispatching the ball to all points of the compass and the 100 partnership arrives with another Gazzard four.

'Nelson' at the start of the 9th and the opposition are trying to tie Carl down.  Unfortunately, the moment his fellow batsman gets on strike it's four, six, four and we end the over on 126 with Matt moving into the 90's - collossal effort in relation to our score.  But all good things come to an end and Woody mistimes a hook and steeples one to end a breathtaking batting display worthy of another Somerset favourite. 94 runs off just 35 balls with 12 fours and four majestic sixes.  Storming stuff.

James Hildreth joins Gazza and we pass 150 without further loss, but at a less breakneck speed, by the middle of the thirteenth.  Gazzard dies next ball for a suppportive 29 and this brings in Mr Ian Blackwell  will this be his day?  Can he match Mr Wood?  Hilda seems to have learned a few things and works to get IB on strike but is caught in the gully the next time he faces a ball and we are at 154 for 5 as we welcome Wes Durston out to the middle.  5 overs to go and 163 on the board.  Some people in the crowd are expecting a Blackwell onslaught and are talking about scores in the region of 220+.  But Blackwell seems subdued and is finding it hard to get on strike because Wes is a good runner between the wickets and keeps turning ones into twos.

Ian is stroking the singles and it is Wes D who is going for the boundaries and scampering to turn singles into more.  This goes on until der Bruyn finally bowls Wes for 16 at 179 for 6 and Arul Suppiah becomes the next partner, whipping a finely judged four down the leg side with his first ball.  He overtakes his more famous partner in fact in the 17th with a six and we go past 200 at 18.5 overs.  The Worcestershire South African takes the last over and does very well with it indeed.  He only goes for 8 and we finish on a very daunting 210 for 6.  Not small but gettable!

15 minutes turnaround and we have a Somerset huddle before we start.  The boys are all gathered together just on the outfield for a bit of 'psyching' and then we are into it.  Hick and Moore start for them and Andy Caddick is welcomed back to the fold to open for us.  I personally think this is too short a format for a bowler like Andy and I'm not sure he would play if other options were open for the selectors.  However, that isn't the case, we need him for his experience and his wicket-taking ability - and we also need him to have some competitive time out in the middle to ready himself for the Championship resumption in a fortnight's time.

Off we go.  Tim Limbach wandered around during the interval and wondered how long it would be before the first Somerset extra?  Well it was first ball as Caddy bowls a wide to start his account.  In fact it was an 8 ball over with one scoring shot off it and 6 runs.  How will Simon Francis fare at the other end?  Well, it is excellent as he gives Moore a real working over and we have them at only 12 off 2.

Graham Hick isn't going to stand around though is he?  He sixes Caddy in his next and has doubled the score by the end of it.  Now we have the first of my own little 'bugbear' issues.  I like Carl Gazzard.  I think he is an exciting batsman and an athletic fielder.  He pulled off a couple of amazing stops tonight.  BUT, he isn't Rob Turner and when he is standing up, we are vulnerable to 'muffs' and 'misses'.  I don't know whether I notice them because I am looking or because they are there.  I just have the opinion that tonight, he missed maybe 8 to 12 runs that I don't think Rob would have.  In this format, it is more noticable - he still has glovework to do IMHO.

Anyway, they have reached 45 after 4 and are up with our scoring rate.  Gareth Andrew opens his account at the OP and starts well.  Moore tries to send him into orbit.  He misses and Gareth hits, 49 and in comes Pipe to greet Keith Parsons at the River End with a punched four over the very fast outfield to bring up the 50.  The two batsmen push the score to 75 when Pipe hangs one up and Arul Suppiah shows a cool temprement by holding on to the ball when it finally returns to Earth.

Now Ben Smith joins Hick and this is a partnership we need to break quickly if we are to hold on to this game.  But Hick has other ideas as he hooks Andrew to go to a very quick 50.  hhe doesn't look like he's going anywhere!  Smith invites Blackwell to bowl and Gazza misses his first ball which goes for four.  At the halfway stage they have 97.  Duckworth/Lewis says they need 93.

Hildreth is brought on to bowl again.  He did well last night.  He does well again as they only manage to pass 100 off his last ball.  The 'press' is on and Smith catches Smith when they try to break out by taking on Blackwell.  The Pears need 87 off 7 and the run rate required is climbing!  Smith  brings Caddick back on to clear Hick out.  But the reverse happens as Hick takes Caddy apart with sixes off ball 2 and ball 5 (which nearly hits one of the eggs).  69 needed with a quarter of the innings to go and Blacky tempts Hick to try again...he does, misses the ball and is bowled for a really good 87.  142 for 4 with Peters and der Bruyn at the crease with a mountain to climb.

And now they come up against our new allrounder - James Hildreth.  After Ian Blackwell has kept them to 3 and even though Keith Parsons goes for 2 sixes, Worcestershire need 50 off 18 balls.  It is gettable - if you can get the bowler away.  Unfortunately, they couldn't get Hilda anywhere, he allowed 3 singled from his first 3 balls and then skittled der Bruyn with his fourth.  They needed 46 off 2 - surely we were home and dry?  Not quite.  Caddy returned to bowl the penultimate one and was absolutely tonked to all parts!  four off the first, six off the second, two off the third, four off the fourth, a rare single and then another boundary to finish it off.  25 off the over - another one of them and we were dead!!  This is not the format form Mr C I'm afraid.

Hildreth bowled the last - cool as a cucumber - 2,1,1,1,4,1 and we finished them off winning by 15.

Man of the Match?  Well there was only one - Matthew Wood by a mile!!

Worryingly, Simon Francis only bowled 2 - was that because the "bit boys" did their job so well?  We can only hope so  Parsons, Blackwell, Andrew and Hildreth all did really well.  Andy has had better days!!

On to Monday and the return match with Glamorgan - let's hope we get some guys fit before then!  Well done boys!

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