By Grockles
July 2 2006
1 win, 1 loss and 1 tie in the 20/20 leaves us needing home points so we expect a lot this afternoon. If Cameron is going to lead us out in the semi's we need points and Warwickshire are here to give them to us....we all hope.
v Warwickshire 20/20 @ Taunton Sunday 2 July 2:40 start
The side will be roughly the same one would imagine although Keith Parsons may struggle so we may see Peter Trego in. It must be an important game because we are first on the Cricinfo live score page and that never happens when we are at home unless we are playing someone really important!! More to come from the game which starts at 2:40.
C U There.
The Game
Somerset won the toss and wew are in for first belt! Johnno and KP aren't fit so in come Trego and Caddick for the first time this year. Matt and JL open and at the qurter way mark we are pushing it but it is slower than usual with a mere 37 from the first 5 overs. It is flamng warm and the ground is heaving. It's interesting that it actually LOOKS like it is heaving today - there's not a lot of seats obviously empty.
A vice captain six takes us past 50 at the end of the sixth over but the Bears are keeping us in check and although bth openers are trying to push the score along it's ony 79 at the start of the 10th. Arer we just getting spoiled by the first game? Certainly Warwickshire's boundary fielding is in a different class to Gloucestershire's but it's going to be hard to defend 150 on this ground!
Woody survives a daft run out on 63 but he finally goes for 38 off 29 halfway through the 10th with 81 on the board. What has Cameron White got for us today?
Well he's up for it as he takes us past 100 with 2 consecutive sixes. Unfortunately his partner in crime Langer goes at 115 with 45 to his name. The cap comes out as the spinners come on and he blasts to 28 off not a lot including a hooked 6 to the usual Barnicotts side. On come the seamers, on comes the helmet and back goes Hildreth without bothering the scorers, the next man is Wes but before he gets going Cameron is on his way back skying one having put on 33 off 20 balls but leaving new man Trigger Trego with a job to do with 5 overs to go and only 132 up.
We don't bat a lot after the Aussies though and there's a bit of this and that we simply don't put together a batting partnership. Trego, Gazzard, Suppiah and Andrew take us through to the end but only get us to 168 and that is never going to be enough given their experience in this format and our bowling resources. We need the right Andrew Caddick to be here today.
Caddick and confirms that this isn't his format by going for 18 off his first with 4 fours, a wide (first ball - he wasn't impressed and stared at the umpire for a long long time) and a dropped catch in the deep from Langer. Not a great start, but our leftie doesn't do too much better at the other end as his fourth bangs off the CA roof and 30 is up off 1.4. 34 off 2 says this isn't going to be a long game!
Caddy does get first blood as Carter tries to put another out of the ground and goes at 48 2 balls into the third - but 29 off 11 balls is more than enough of a contribution. The 50 comes up in the third and we have to wait until the 4th for Wagh to miscue one and become the second victim off Willoughby caught in the deep. In comes Trott and the score keeps climbing - at 5 they are nearly halfway with 74 to their names
More success at 92 when Arul skittles Troughton but they already have enough and don't have anything to worry about. It's 'Nelson' at 10 and this game is over! It goes through to the 16th and we field like terriers but when the ball is hitting the boundary boards before you can move that simply isn't enough and they get home with loads of balls left.
We were at least 50 short. On this wicket in these conditions a score under 200 was simply not going to be defendable. The question of why we chose to bat was debated long and hard. The only moisture there was going to be in this strip was early on after quite an aggressive thunderstorm about 9:00 this morning. Shouldn't we have bowled first?
The second debated question was why Caddy was picked in a format and at a ground where he has struggled before. The answer was quite clear "Who else was available?" Well unless we wanted to go for one of the younger seamers (as Simon Francis doesn't seem to be any kind of option) it would have had to be a batsman - John Francis or Neil Edwards and Cameron would have had to rely on his spinners a little more - we would still have gone in with 6 bowlers (only Wood, Langer and Gazzard don't). Maybe that is why White chose to bat first, hit a big score and then defend it rather than be murdered and have to reach a huge total. Don't know. We have a bowling problem in most forms of the game but the shorter the format the higher the score we have to make in order to have a chance of winning. Today we came up short and our chances of progressing in this competition are heavily based on a lot of wins in the next 9 days.
On to Northants on Wednesday.
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