Gloucestershire threw away yet another Twenty20 match this season, as Somerset twice staged fightbacks to win the westcountry derby at Bristol by three wickets, in perhaps the best Twenty20 match ever played at Nevil Road.
Thankfully, the fancy dress/facemask bonanza failed to materialise as once again Gloucestershire v Somerset sold itself, serving up a real cracker of a match in the late Bristol sunshine, although the spectacle was soured by a penalty-run fiasco before the start of the 19th over of the Somerset innings.
Despite a streaker, a few balls sent beyond the stands, and numerous umpire conferences over the state of the ball, the officials decided that the Shire had failed to bowl their overs in the allotted timescale - vigorously enforced by the Sky TV schedules. The penalty took Somerset to within four, robbing everyone of the tense 10 from 12 ball target that had been set up. Had Sky not been present, I have no doubts that over rate would never have been considered.
The home side dominated the opening 10 overs of both innings. Having gone at 12-an-over batting first, the Shire again lost wickets at bad times and the last 10 overs was a real scrap; James Franklin and David Brown playing very irresponsible shots given the situation, as Glos were bowled out in the 20th over.
For once, the powerplay fired Gloucestershire off to a great start. Kadeer Ali hit seven boundaries in 33 off 13 balls before Hamish Marshall and Will Porterfield continued the onslaught in a 63 stand. But the ridiculous run-out of Marshall proved the turning point in the innings, as the Shire failed to rebuild, and what should have been a score above 200 ended with 173.
With Langer, Trescothick, Hildreth and de Bruyn all dismissed with only 23 on the board, the game was pretty much up for Somerset. The home fans were off to the bar to toast another victory over their rivals, only to return from the long queues to have missed Peter Trego's powerful 49 from 26 balls which propelled the visitors back into the game.
Trego was dismissed with the required rate still 10-per-over, but no-one legislated for Craig Kieswetter's amazing ability to score big runs in TV matches. He played a phenomenal innings, exploiting Bristol's short straight boundaries and won Somerset the match with his 84 from 42 balls.
However, questions must be asked of the lengths that the Shire bowled. There were far too many length deliveries, and Kieswetter was able to swing through the line with regularity, in a game Gloucestershire will be glad was a dead rubber for them.
How did Glos manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory again, I thought that they'd stopped that last year!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be a recurring theme that when Hamish Marshall gets out (normally unecessarily) Gloucestershire collapse!
It was a fantastic first 10 overs!
When we were 100/1 from 8, we should not have lost from there, then there was Somerset 4 down before the halfway stage.
ReplyDeleteTerrific game though- perhaps had the penalty runs not been awarded we would have won because Kieswetter got out the ball after the penalty runs.
Was a terrific game all round though, shame about the result!
Black script on blue background makes your blog difficult to read old sport. However, from the commentary: two outstanding innings from Trego and Keiswetter truly turned a lost cause into victory. So well done to them. Young Craig improves in just about every game...a class act, an international in the making.
ReplyDeleteFollowing Somerset I go back to 1946....I wonder what Gimblett and Wellard would make of this modern bananza? You'd need some longer boundaries for them I should think.
Cheers.
rjp ex Midsomer Norton
The (again needless) runout of Hamish was the big turning point I think - maybe we should petition for Ten10 cricket!
ReplyDeleteHowever, although I think it ultimately didn't matter, I don't understand the awarding of the penalty runs for the following reason - during our innings, extra time was clearly added onto the Somerset clock (presumably as a result of delays) and their time increased from 2 mins to above 5 - enough time for them to bowl the overs (recall that their clock ran down moments before the last over began). When it came to us this did not happen and, especially seeings as the twat who decided to streak cost us a good couple of minutes, that just doesn't add up - one rule for them, one for us, one for sky?? (Sky who apparently only saw one team in that game anyway, and it wasn't us...(I say 'apparently' cos it's only what I've heard!))
Anonymous above - maybe try magnifying your page using zoom to help read it?