Somerset
Metro50 Game1 - Welcome to the next stage - Notts at Welbeck
By Grockle
July 21 2026
While the cricket establishment pretends that the domestic cricket season moves to their franchises. the real peopleknow that the domestic cricket continues with the MetroBank 50 tournament.. Admittedly some of the franchise counties have to go to outgrounds to play - what's not to like? But we revamp our first team and move on while our mercenaries go and do their mercenary thing for a month or so. Jake Ball captains today because of Lewis Goldsworthy's concussion based absence and we welcome new players and give first team experienceto the younger guys. We face Notts at Welbeck today at 11.
MetroBank 50 Game 1 - v Notts Outlaws @ Welbeck Tuesday 21 July 2026
The 50 over tournament starts today with Jack Ball in the skipper shirt because chosen captain Lewis Goldsworthy is still resticted from playing because of a concussion ruling during the Blast QF. They start away at Welbeck in the Midlands. Notts won the toss and have elexted to bowl first so we will see our new opening pair with new signing Savin Perera starting for the first time; The side is;
Vaughan, Perera, Thomas, Lammonby, Connell, Church (w), Roberts, Pretorius, Leach, Shaw, Ball (c)
Johnny Connell is the other player people may not be all that aware of a bat from Berkshire who has been having a decent season as well. Perera has a 70+ batting average for the seconds this summer and so deserves his place to shine as our second SACA signee after his Metro Prolific SACA bat for Somerset in Andy Umeed
There is a live stream for those interested and as we have for all the seasons since the franchises messed up this part of the season we will follow the county though its third domestic competition because it is what we do.
Jack Haynes misses for Notts with some kind of arm injury. Hutton will open against Vaughan and Perera and Archie puts the first ball over the rope for four. Good story that Jake Ball captain's at the club he started at in Welbeck. The commentators say the ground has some bounce in it usually but is a good batting track by reputation. Archie nibbles at one in the first over and is caught by behind by Verreynne. That brings Lammonby to the crease for the first time for a couple of months and they end the first over at 4 for 1. First look at Perera. He's a compact bat with the usual low centre of gravity you see from these big scoring bats. he has five centuries in the Notts Premier League this summer besides having an average of 70 plus for Somerset seconds. He certainly deserves his chance in this side.
James Hayes bowls the second and produces a maiden so the new Somerset opener has yet to get off the mark. He does get a single to remove the zero in the next over. as Lammers does the same.
Hayes bowls another maiden with the third but during the fifth they do break the shackles a little and take 7 from it including Sav's first boundary in a first team shirt for the county but after 7 the runs are not easy to come by as they move to 19 for 1 with Tom Lammonby's first boundary. He moves to 6 with Perera on 8.
The new opening bat 'opens' his shoulders with consecutive boundaries from Hayes in the 8th to double his score. By the end of the first 10 overs with Hutton and Hayes both bowling five, Somerset have reached 37 for 1 with most of them from the 'wand' of Savin Perera (21 from 32) with Tom Lammonby (9 from 23). The first 'Powerplay' has finished with Notts probably happier than the visitors.
Brett Hutton continues and gets an edge from Perera but it falls short of the slips and we see our first change as Rob Lord replaces James Hayes for the 12th at 39 for 1 Hayes bowled 0 for 22 form his first 5 with 2 maidens. Lord has probably the most pace in the Notts side and he bounces Sav who simply flips the ball over the keeper to the straight boundary.
The 50 arrives off Lord in the 14th. Tom Lammonby is definitely operating in the support role having half of the new man's score at the moment. At the end of the over the pair move very close to a 50 run partnership. They do reach that target off the 3rd ball of the 15th at 54 for 1 with Lammonby on 16 and Perera on 31.
Lyndon James is finally introduced for the 18th at 69 for 1 though not for Hutton. They do not bowl him out but the spin of Farhan Ahmed is used to replace him and they keep Hutton with 1 left. Lord is kept for later also as they look to possibly 'press' a little more as we move towards the 20 over section. Three runs come from his first and teh visiting side move to 79 for 1 - it's still slow going after 19 overs.
They pass 80 to 81 after 20 and Savin Perera goes to a debut 50 off the first ball of James from 72 balls with 8 fours. 89 for 1 just into the 22nd over. He looks very good on first impressions, compact and confident with a decent variety of shots.
Ahmed bowls the halfway over and Perera lifts the ball over Lord, takes 3 and Somerset go to 102 for 1. At the halfway stage the batting pair have moved to a 100 run partnership to 104 for 1 with 25 overs to go. Perera has 57 from 81 and Lammonby has 39 from 65.
After a drinks break Freddie McCann brings his fast offspin to the game. He gets Perera as he pushes one back down the ground. It holds up in the wicket and the bowler takes a very low catch. Savin walks so it seems he did get it low off the ground. An excellent start from the new bat as he leaves for 58 at 106 for 2 and he is replaced by Josh Thomas and he is off the mark with a single. His partner TL has moved to 40 and will now be expected to take the lead role for the next stage of the innings.
Notts operate a two spin option with the left arm spinners against the left hand bats. Pockligton is their right arm man and they seem to be holding him back for our right handers. Tom Lammonby adds Somerset's second 50 in this innings as the Notts spinners hold the line for a number of overs and it does not arrive until the 31st over off Ahmed at 127 for 2 from 80 balls with 4 fours. The progress is still quite slow and a score over 250 is still quite a way away in this game.
The 150 arrives in the 34th off McCann and the pair then produce the 50 partnership in the 35th off Ahmed. At 35 overs the two umpires will look at both balls and decide which to take to the close of the innings at 160 for 2. Rob Lord returns for the 36th to bowl his third. He had 0 for 21 from his first 2. James changes ends for the 37th at 164 for 2. They look to push and a flick from Thomas into Pocklington's hands and he departs for 27 from 35 at 166 for 3. This brings right hander Johnny Connell into the game with a debut role of pushing this total on in the last 15 overs. Tom Lammonby has 71 presently. Connell is off the mark with 2.
Tom Lammonby starts to move the score in the 39th off James as he takes him for 9 and then Connell adds another 5. Lord bowls the 40th and we look to add to 195 in the last 10 overs. They will be looking past 250 and hope for enough to get neaer to 300. Notts finally introduce Joe Pocklington, their young right arm spinner for the 41st. Excellent boundary fielding on a bouncey outfiled with both fielders having to knock the ball back jumping in and out of play. They save a run between them as the 3 added moves Somerset over 200 to 201 for 3 with Lammonby moving into the 90s.
Lord bowls his seventh and has Tom pulling straight to the outfielder to be out caught for 92 from 109 at 204 for 4. That is a blow as we would have liked him to move past 3 figures and push this score on. Not to be though and in comes Kian Roberts in the batting allrounder role and we would expect Connell to be the man to put bat to ball and get us a defendable total. No one is quite sure what a par score is here but Notts have a strong batting line-up and we may be a bit on the 'porous' side so we may need a good solid 10 overs here.
With 8 overs to go 250 is still a push and 300 is pretty much not on with the batting we have left. 210 for 4 with 48 balls available. They are presently going at a run a ball so about 260 is a possible. Connell willnot be there at the end as he looks to force it but doesn't get it over Pocklington. He goes for a run a ball 24 at 231 for 5 - a good start from the debutant but only 1 boundary. In comes Migael Pretorius for some 'long handle' stuff withjust over 5 to go.
The question is now whether Somerset can pass 270 with 30 balls to go and 233 on the scoreboard. Roberts has 16 from 12 and will be the main man as Hayes returns for his sixth. The Notts bowlers have done a good job in keeping the ball in the field, there have been significantly few boundaries in the innings. Roberts gets a high leading edge and goes at 238 for 18 from 14 trying to push it on. Not what we wanted but Pocklington does not drop those. in comes the third debutant Ben Church at 18 years oldwith 4 overs to go. Miggy P will now look to go for it off Pocklington but the spinner has too much and he bowls the bat sending Pretorius back for 4 from 6 and giving Somerset a new batting partnership with nothing between them with 23 balls left and the new man coming out being Jack Leach at 238 for 7
He's off to a quick single but the scoring is not what the visitors would like as the spinner only goes for 2 off the 47th. 18 balls and still 10 from 250 as Hayes takes the 48th. Looking at this you have to say that this will be short of what Somerset hoped for and possibly about 30 short of what they would have liked. The tail is not going to produce fireworks unfortunately so if the front end does not fire we are going to be defending shortish totals in these games. The return of Lewis Goldsworthy should extend the batting line-up but we do still look a bat short here.
244 for 7 with 12 balls left and Pocklington bowling the penultimate over. They reach 250 with 7 balls to go and they have 6 left with Leach going up the track and is stumped without adding to the score. He goes for 4 from 7. Josh Shaw comes out with 6 balls left and Church on strike. They get a leg bye from the first from Hayes. Shaw's first is high to the outfielder and he is out first ball caught in the deep. Out comes Jake Ball at 251 for 9. He tries to emulate his colleague but he isn't caught and he gets off the mark with a single instead. Church takes another single and then there's another bye so he gets the last ball. He hits the nall straight over the bowlers head for 4. 258 for 9 with Church on 13 from 14 with his captain on 1 from 2. Probably 25 short and needing something fine from the bowlers to keep us in this.
The Reply
Slater and McCann open for the home side against the opening bowling partnership of Ball and Shaw. The skipper takes the first and it results in a single leg bye so 1 for 0. Josh starts the second and the first boundary comes from McCann during it as he finishes at 7 for 0. The skipper only give away runs off a no ball in the second so his frugal bowling continues at 8 for 0. Unfortunately Shaw does not fare so well with his second as Slater takes 14 off him.
The Notts bats start to open against Ball as well in the 5th over and he goes for the first six of the game as he also leaks runs in his third. The 15 he gives away means that Notts are 37 for 0 - the score Somerset had after 10 overs so the writing is already on the wall!!
Ball gets the balance back towards the middle as Slater looks to cut Jake at 43 for 0 in the 7th. He goes for 25 from 18 caught by Leach 43 for 1. In comes Ben Martindale at number 3.
Notts pass 50 off a boundary from McCann in the 8th as they go to 52 for 1. By the 10th they have moved that on to 61 for 1 with McCann moving on to 20 from 31 while Martindale has moved to a run a ball 13. Ball has bowled 5 overs for 18 while his partner Shaw has gone for 42 from his 5. Someret turn to spin for the 12th introducing Archie Vaughan to the attack for the first time. He goes for 6 and is joned by a change at the other end as Migael Pretorius bowls for the first time in anger in a professional game for a couple of months at 75 for 1. His first is a maiden and Vaughan's next adds 7 to the score and moves Notts into the 80s. Miggy takes us to 15 and the score ot 90.
With the second ball of the next Archie over the young spinner makes the next breakthrough as Martindale looks to pull and when the ball moves a little he pumps it straight to Jake who takes the catch. He goes for 21 from 28 at 90 for 2. In comes the Notts skipper Haseeb Hameed at number 4. Together Hameed and McCann pass the 100 score with a McCann reversed sweep which takes the score to 102 for 2 and Freddie to a personal 49. In the 19th from Pretorius McCann takes a drop and run single to give him his 50 from 57 balls with 8 fours. Notts stand at a 77% chance of winning this one as the 19th ends at 107 for 2 needing 152 to win. Kian Roberts comes on to start his bowling work with the 20th over and he ends his first going for a solid 3 with almost a caught and bowl as it goes into his hands and out the other side it was Freddie's second possiblt catch as Josh Thomas has a decent chance which probably didn't carry when McCann had 15. Nevertheless it is 110 for 2 after 20 and Jack Leach is on for the 21st.
His first goes for 7 and with Roberts continuuing we move to the halfway point of the reply with the home side in a pretty strong position for the back leg of their innings. Somerset look to try and change things up by introducing the left arm of Tom Lammonby for the 24th over (there is no Alfie Ogborne left arm available at the moment - no real indication if that will change in the next few matches.) It is however good to see that we are expecting Tom L to fully participate in this campaign as his bowling became more and more important as the 2025 version of this contest went on. He goes for 6 and Notts move on to 132 for 2. Somerset were 33 runs behind this at this point in the game.
The score has moved on to 138 for 2 at the innings' halfway point with Hameed on 26 from 35 and McCAnn on 60 from 70. They need another 121 from 150 balls and that would be a position that most 50 over sides would be very happy with.
The 150 arrives from Leach with a McCann single at the end of the 27th. Pretorius returns for his 5th from the other end with present figures of 0 for 15. Without giving away another run Freddie McCann miscues a fourth ball bouncer and top edges it into the grateful hands of the sub fielder James Theedom. He goes for 70 from 81 at 150. The keeper Verreynne is next in and a very dangerous man he is with a bat in his hand!!
Josh Shaw returns as we move past 30 overs with Notts at 160 for 3 and although he only goes for 3 from his 6th, he has gone for 45 from his spell and that is too many in the context of this game and the Somerset score. In comparison, his present partner Migael has gone for 17 from his 6 over spell and also has a wicket. Meanwhile Shaw passes the 50 run milestone during his next over courtesty of a four from Hameed. It's 177 by the end of the 33rd and we hear that James Theedom is fielding because of an injury to Kian Roberts which has finished his involvement in this game and looked pretty sereious when he went down. We have to hope he will recover but it did not look good.
The other Josh - Thomas comes on for his first bowl with the 34th over at 177 for 3 and is first goes for 6 but the gap between the two side's scoring rates is too large to be hinest for this to be more than just a question of time unless there is a flurry of wickets from the Somerset bowlers.
Hameed takes a boundary off the 35th over to rech 50 from 55 balls at 187 for 3 and with 15 overs left Notts need 69 from 90 balls. as one Josh (seamer) is followed by another Josh (spinner). By the 37th - bowled by the returning Somerset captain, Notts pass 200 with a single from the South African keeper to move him to 18.
The runs required for victory falls below 50 in the 39th as Verreynne takes another single to go to 26. It's 221 for 3 with 10 overs to go and just when you think it's all over, Somerset push back. Pretorius reeturns and he has Verreynne hooking him out into the deep where a fielder is waiting and the keeper goes for 27 from 41 at 221 for 4. He is caught by Johnny Connell and replaced by Lyndon James. Tom Lammonby returns for the 42nd over at 'double Nelson'. He holds them to another single from his over. Miggy is not done and in the next one his slower ball fools Hameed and he skies the ball straight up for 66 from 79 caught by Josh Thomas at 226 for 5. That becomes 226 for 6 as Pocklington nibbles outside off stump and is caught behind by Church (his first first team wicket). Miggy is suddenly on a hat-trick as Rob Lord strides out with his side needing 33 from 44 balls, It's not another wicket, just another dot ball and Pretorius finishes his 9th with 4 for 27.
Lyndon James decides this is too much of a worry so he starts to finish this one. He takes 18 off the 44th over to move Notts to 245 for 6. Miggy takes the 45th over and Notts go past 250 with a James free hit after a no ball. 253 becomes tied at 258 with a single and a Lord boundary and then they finish the game with a Pretorius bouncer 'wide' which wins it by FOUR wickets.
The lesson from here is pretty simple. in a 50 over game, if you score at less than 6 an over you cannot then allow 3 bowlers to go at more than 7 an over for 18 overs and expect to win. We lose with 30 balls left. we were short then we were loose and now we are still on zero points after 1 game. Kieran Roberts is porbably nor available for the two home games at the weekend so we have to hope that Lewis Goldsworthy is. Good debuts from Sav Perera and Johnny Connell, tidy work behind the stumps by Ben Church. Half the bowling was worth watching with Migael's 4 wickets at just over 4 being the highlight but we need to tighten up and contribute more with the bat or it's going to be a long long month.
On to the derby at Taunton on Friday.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:23:15:47:09 by Grockle.
This will be the thread for any comments on the game people. I'll leave these open and guage responses over the first few games.
There is a Youtube Livestream for the game.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:21:12:17:03 by Grockle.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:21:12:18:19 by Grockle.
Good to see Tom Lammonby getting some runs as well.
Perera has something of Samit Patel about him.
Will need to bowl very well to win this.
Grizzers
Obviously, Notts are within the rules, but was not their selection rather cocking-a-snook at the ECB`s oft-heard chant that the Metro Cup is supposed to be a `development` tournament?
Perhaps Donald Trump could ring Lord`s about it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:21:18:08:46 by cricketjerry-mouse.
You can't consistently score runs at less than 6 an over and then go for at least 7 an over for a considerable number of your bowling overs.
if you do that you will run out of runs and the other side will win. Notts did that with 5 overs left to be bowled. It was pretty obvious that was going to happen just before Migael gave us a bit of hope
Looks like we've lost Kian Roberts but will regain Lewis Goldsworthy for the next game
As a main strike seamer, Josh Shaw MUST tighten up or we have to use someone else. Is JT Langridge an option or not? It seems that Alfie Ogborne may not be given some of the comments made on commentary during this game by people who may know something
What happened to Kian, any news? I'd rather hoped we'd used up all the injury woes in the first half of the season.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:22:09:48:32 by Devonboy70.
And I thought this is the easier group. No Worcs, Hants, Essex. Ben Stokes looking not so developmental.
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