Cricket Azam at his best as his 114 leads Somerset to emphatic win
BABAR Azam, the prolific Pakistan batsman, with a career best 114 not out from only 62 balls, enabled Somerset to set up a formidable total of 183-3 which was enough for them to gain their third win in the Vitality Blast, and give them an outside chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Somerset also improved their net run rate, with Glamorgan losing ten wickets with 25 balls of their innings remaining.
The Glamorgan bowlers weren’t at their best, the fielding was sub -standard, with Azam dropped twice. He then made the home team suffer as he guided his team to a total far beyond the par score at Sophia Gardens this season.
Glamorgan’s reply was a pitiful affair from the moment they lost their first two wickets in nine balls balls, with the game over as a contest when they collapsed to 47-5, and then 62-6 at the halfway stage.
Somerset, who were put in on the same slow pitch on which Glamorgan defeated Northants the previous Sunday, lost two wickets in the opening three overs and were 39-2 after the powerplay.
Steve Davies was the first to go when he was stumped from Prem Sisodiya’s quicker ball, and in the following over 18-year-old Will Smeed, a product of King’s College Taunton, who made 82 against Gloucestershire last week, mistimed an intended pull to give midon a simple catch
Azam, who was dropped from a difficult chance to cover on 10, scored freely on either side of the wicket, and reached a rapid fifty from 34 balls, and put on 52 with Tom Abell for the third wicket, before the Somerset captain lifted Andrew Salter’s off-spin to long-off.
Azam was reprieved on 67, when Marchant De Lange, whose first over went for 18 runs, had him dropped at third man, where Owen Morgan misjudged a top-edged cut. He was well supported by Lewis Goldsworthy, an 18-year-old all-rounder, formerly of Millfield School, making his T20 debut.
Azam reached his century in the 19th over, the second fifty coming from just 23 deliveries, with the partnership for the fourth wicket yielding 110 in 10.4 overs.
Rolf Van Der Merwe started Glamorgan’s demise by having David Lloyd and Chris Cooke caught at backward point in his opening over, both by the substitute fielder George Bartlett. Although they were 38-3 after the powerplay - one run behind Somerset and a wicket more - the rot then set in as the batsman found ways of getting themselves out.
Owen Morgan top-scored with 24, but there was little resistance from the others, as Glamorgan were bowled out for 117.