By Grockle
July 5 2026

The last four games of the 2026 Blast and Somerset are neither in or out of the chase for a next stage place.  They really have to win all four games left and even then they may not qualify for the knock out section and/or Finals Day.  The consecutive four losses made it difficult and the other loss last Sunday compounded the problem.  The face the Steelbacks at home who have won the toss and put Somerset in.

Blast Game 9 v Northants @ Northamptonshire Sunday 5 July 2026

After the loss to Worcestershire last Sunday, Somerset probably have to hope for a set of favourable results to help them qualify for the next stage even IF they win their last four games.  They face a strong Northants side on their own turf and will bat first after they win the toss.

The side that faces them is;

Smeed, Rew T (w), TKC (c), Rew J, Thomas, Goldsworthy, Sams, Overton, Shaw, Meredith, Ball

Will Smeed will open against Willey and Sanderson with Thomas Rew because of the absence of Tom Banton who is with England (and may have played his last gem of the season for the county).  Smeed comes into this off the back of a ton against Cornwall on Friday hopefully getting im back into the right kind of feel for the white ball game.

Willey opens and goes for 5 with the first boundary from Smeed.  Ben Sanderson starts at the other end and is sixed off his first ball (a loose one).  He sends another one for six , coming up the wicket from the third, straight over his head.  He has 17 of the 18 after 2.  By the end of the 4th (James Sales bowled the third), they have a partnership of 34 with Smeed on 22 and Rew with 11.  The outfield is like lightning and we are going to need something in the 190s to have a par score here.  Northants chase well at home.

Sanderson is brought back for the last over of the 'Powerplay' and Smeed brings up the 50 with another six off the second ball (53 for 0).  He has taken a liking to Sanderson and Rew is also starting to put bat to ball.  They have moved to 61 at the end of 6 with an excellent save from Willey to make sure the last ball goes for 2 rather than 4.

Calvin Harrison's leg spin is next on the menu for the 7th over.  Rew, the new man slog sweeps the spinner past the ex Somerset player George Bartlett and then he sixes Harrison to catch up with his present partner.  They have moved to 78 off 7 as Scrimshaw is introduced to see if he can break this partnership.  Rew welcomes him with a carved one bounce four which takes him into the 40s - past Smeed. Scrimshaw goes for 12 and we are 90 with Thomas Rew on a 24 ball 47.  

They bring leading wicket taker Sales back as both bats move into the 40s.   They have taken on the momentum and disrupted the bowling attack as he bowls 3 wides.  A four from the 4th as Rew goes to 52 from 27 at 99 for 1.  He then brings up the 100 with a single to end the 9th.  There were 9 fours and a six in that first 50.

The spin of Zaib takes Northants to the 10th.  He is reversed swept for 4 by Rew off his first ball.  He then tries a big shot and is caught by Harrison on the boudnary for 57 (his first T20 50) off 30 balls.  104 for 1 - a decent first wicket.  He is replaced by his brother James and he is off the mark with a single.  After 10 overs Somerset are on the downhill phase at 108 for 1.  A 200 score has to be their target given this first half of the game.

Harrison is re-introduced and greeted with a reverse swept Smeed four.  He goes big trying to hit a six and he is gone caught at Long On by Kimber for 48 from 30 - maybe gave that away but certainly a scary start from the first 2.  In comes the captain TKC at 114 for 2 after 11 overs. He doesn't stay long as he cloths one to Bartlett for 4 off Harrison in the 13th at 122 for 3.  He still isn't looking completely sharp to be honest.  In comes Lewis Goldsworthy.  Harrison has moved to better figures as he now has 2 for 25 from his 2 and a half over - he was 0 for 21 of his first 2.  Rew will now look to move the score back to 10 plus an over if he can with Lewis operating in support one would imagine.

Zaib bowls his third for the 14th and has only conceded 15 at the start of this one.  Rew is looking to take him on.  He hits him for 2 fours at the end of the over to move the score to 145 for 3.  Scrimshaw takes the 15th and Somerset want to be the other side of 150 by the end of it because something over 200 at Northampton is the minimum they would be aiming for.  With 5 to go they are at 149 - not quite but close enough.  Rew on 24 from 16 and LG on 6 from 7.

Sales starts the 16th and a Goldsworthy single brings up the 150.  A Bartlett misfield gives us four more which Golders doubles with a glorious punt throught the infield to reach 160 as he moves to 12.  Sanderson takes his 3rd with the 17th.  Rew looks to move on but puts it straight down Harrison's throat and leaves for 30 from 20.  163 for 4 as Daniel Sams arrives and he flips his first for four.  167 for 4 with 18 to go as they bring Willey back to bowl out presently at 0 for 22 from 3.  

Goldsworthy sees his role as getting Sams on strike.  He does that and Sams sends the next for six followed by a straight one to double it up.  After a wide he adds a third six to go to 22 from 5.  188 for 4 with 12 to go taking 21 off the Willey over.  An excellent striking over from the Aussie seamer who has stolen the strike.#

Sanderson bowls out next, Sams sends him for a one bounce four from ball 1.  He turns the single down on the next one.  It was the right decision as he carves the next one for four to move to 31 off 9.  Lewis punches the ball for four to bring up the 200 with 7 deliveries to come.  The last over will have Sams on strike with Sales bowling it at 201 for 4.  Sales has 31 off his first 3.  The first is a wide,  the second is missed by everyone and results in 5 wides.  Still six balls to go.  The take a very quick two on the McSweeney arm.  They then take another two off the slow ball.  The next slow ball is a dot but he then sends the next for a six off the toe of the bat.  He moves to 42 off 13.  The next is a four with 2 balls to go.  This goes straight up and they drop him as he takes two.  He is 48 not out from 16 (strike rate of 300) and we have 223 for 4.  Lewis has 19 from 17.  Northants need 224.

The Reply

Vasconcelos and McSweeney come out to look for a good start to this chase .  Overton takes the first and goes for 5.  Meredith takes the next and look to bounce Vasconcelos who says 'Thank you very much' and hits him for 3 consecutive fours over the field.  He then tries to bounce McSweeney who also hits him for four and he goes for 21 with a finsl flashed four over the lkeeper!!!  He needs to think about that one!!!  Northants go to 26 for 0.  2 of the boundaries were lucky but they were lucky because they went for balls because he was offering them something.  Not very impressed by that I'm afraid. 

Shaw takes the 4th at 35 for 0 and he concedes 13 as they move to 49 after the 4th with a large number of boundaries.  Somerset have a huge total but they really do struggle to hold sides under scores of 200 in reply.  They may survive today but it is a weakness of their attack that they have little variation with no mystery spin in their attack.  Craig bowls a 3rd with the 5th and he gets McSweeney LBW for 14 from 13 at 49 for 1 after 4 dot balls.   The lesson is THAT is how you bowl in these games.  Calviin Harrison is next in to continue the left/right combination.  COve bowls a wicket maiden - excellent work.

We try Jake Ball for the last of the 'Powerplay' overs.   The 50 arrives with his second ball of the 6th. It comes from 32 balls with Vasconcelos on 33 from 10 and Harrison on 1.  Ball goes for 8 and the first phase ends with 57 for 1.  Somerset are bowling Craig out as he has only gone for 12 from his first 3 and we need the tightness without the mystery spinner.  Having said that Lewis Goldsworthy has bowled the 7th usually.  They are probably holding him back as he must be the one Northants will be looking to go after.  COve goes for 1 for 20 from his spell.  Brilliant bowling 4/1/1/18.

Lewis now comes on for the 8th.  Vasconcelos looks to reverse sweep him and he puts it straight into the hands of Jake Ball  to go for 40 from 22 just wehn they needed him to take the ball on with sensible shots not idiotic silly ones.  65 for 2 with David Willey the skipper coming in to keep the left/right option going.   A short ball from Willey is straight into the hands of Thomas at deep square leg.  In comes Zaib at 67 for 3 and he is beaten for pace with nothing on his scorecard.  Lewis takes 3 in the over and has 1 over 3 for 2!!  Excellent work from the little man.  

Louis Kimber comes in as Sams starts his bowling shift with the 9th at 67 for 4.  Kimber is dropped on 0 by Shaw and gets a life to be off the mark.  Not easy taking it over the shoulder but should have been taken.  He goes for 9 and Northants need 148 off 11 overs at 76 for 4.  Not suprisingly they let Lewis have another over to take us to 10.  He goes for one boundary and only 10 when they need 14 an over.  They are now going to try Josh Thomas at the other end to see if spin can do something to take this game away.  He sends in some darts and after only going for one he keeps one low and bowls Kimber for 13 off 11.  Excellent bowling as Josh finishes his first with 1 for 2 as McManus gets off the mark.  87 for 5 after 11.

We double the spin with another Lewis over to turn the screw another notch and the new man sends the first to the rope.  Harrison does the same when he gets on strike and he has 3 for 21 after 3.  The rate has now moved to 16 an over and we will continue with these two spinners until Northants look to take them on.  Harrison tries to bring the 100 with a six but Craig runs around and takes it out of the air so it is 99 for 6 as Harrison goes for 18 from 16.  George Bartlett is the next in and he will have faced Josh Thomas before.  He misses the first and it goes for 4 byes to bring up the 100.  Bartlett goes up the wicket, Josh takes the pace off, George misses it and is stumped  for 0.  Josh has 3 wickets for 3 runs in 2 overs and it is 103 for 7

Lewis ends with 32 runs for 3 and it's 114 for 7 with 6 overs to go - he's won the game for us alongside his spin partner Thomas who takes the 15th.  He has four for four with a top edged hit from Sales who is caught by Goldsworthy with 8 for 6 and it is 115 for 8 as Sanderson comes on with nothing to play for.   With an over to go Josh has 4 for 6.

5 to go and Northants needs 107 from 30 balls as they need 21.4 per over.  Shaw takes over after the spin and McManus falls for 13 from 11 and it is 117 for 9 off his first.  In comes Scrimshaw and he takes a single.  Sanderson then flips the ball to the Somerset skipper to complete a 107 run victory going for 1 from 2. All out for 118.  This is what Somerset should have been doing for a long time.  They have shown their pride has been hurt by their performances. It may be too late but that was absolutely devastating for Northants.  Brilliant game.  Shame they won't be impressing on Finals Day I'm afraid.

Blast Game 9 - Northants Away

Discussion started by Grockles.com , 05/07/2026 15:35

Grockles.com
05/07/2026 15:35

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:09:10:03:54 by Grockle.

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Grockle
05/07/2026 17:51

Brilliant spin work from Josh Thomas and Lewis Goldsworthy who have 6 wickets for less than 30 runs between them!!

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sfwithers
05/07/2026 18:04

Well...!

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Grockle
05/07/2026 18:08

Northants absolutely massacred by Somerset spin. Josh Thomas 4 for 6 but Lewis Goldsworthy won the game with 3 wickets in his first over. Craig bowled a wicket maiden when all other seamers were going for 40 odd and we took their bowling apart in the Powerplay plus Sams finally shows us why we took him on with 48 runs off 16 balls (Will Smeed looked dangerous getting that many off twice as many balls!!)

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nelliec
05/07/2026 18:41

All results went Somersets way today with Glamorgan and Gloucester losing.As a result no more than 2 teams can get passed 28 points so 3 wins should be enough to qualify.,as our run rate would improve greatly

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Sloop John B
05/07/2026 18:41

Well! I wasn't expecting that!! A fine team performance at last in the Blast. Stand outs to the opening pair, and Craigo plus excellent bowling spells from Goldie and Josh T.

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Devonboy70
05/07/2026 18:53

Superb result against the form table . Perhaps Josh Thomas will be afforded more overs at the expense of pace in the remaining games . Has Lewis ever taken 3 wickets in an over for Somerset before ?

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Bagpuss
05/07/2026 19:09

Josh Thomas celebrating Arul Suppiah Day by taking 4-6.

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Grizzers
05/07/2026 19:37

Certainly didn’t see that result coming.

Just shows there is more room for taking the pace off the ball. Josh Thomas & Lewis did so admirably.

One step at a time and all that, but a hugely encouraging result.

Grizzers

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Grockle
05/07/2026 20:45

Always thought Josh was a more useful spinner than the amount we use him. Both of them do take important wickets and seem to know what they are doing in difficult situations. If we aren't going to use the specialist spinners in these games we really ought to use all the weapons at our disposal when the circumstances call for it and need some pace off the ball.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:06:13:28:34 by Grockle.

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ColinNo11
06/07/2026 11:55

Riley Meredith's one over was the only blot on an otherwise perfect copybook. He only seems to have one tactic - bang it in short and hope the batsman miscues - and, if that doesn't work, no alternative. Spin or "pace off" as the commentators call it - does seem to be the way to go these days which makes Craig's effort even more remarkable. Time to bring in Jack for a game or two?

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Grockle
06/07/2026 13:30

Get Erin Vukusic in with her massively disceptive slow ball!! A pace man really has to have one. Just trying the same thing over and over again when a bat has your length line and pace is not going to change anything.

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