Taylor taunts rivals

BRENDAN Taylor led Nottinghamshire into the semi-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup with a brilliant century as hosts Somerset were beaten by 24 runs.

After losing the toss, Notts posted 429-9 – the highest List A total ever made at Taunton – with Taylor, right, contributing 154 off 97 balls with 17 fours and five sixes. Riki Wessels blasted 81 and Samit Patel 66. Lewis Gregory finished with 4-60 off eight overs.

Somerset replied with 405 all out off 48 overs, Dean Elgar making 91 off 63 balls and Peter Trego contributing 66.

Harry Gurney finished with 3-71 but the batsmen dominated and a crowd of 3,500 were treated to 28 sixes. Taylor was almost run out taking the single that brought up his 69-ball century but otherwise looked invincible.

Steve Mullaney added 37 before falling to Jamie Overton, who then dropped Taylor on 124 with the total on 373 in the 45th over. A late clatter of wickets included that of Taylor but 56 runs were still added in the last five overs.

Johann Myburgh scored 44 off 19 balls to launch the reply but when he fell with the total on 55 and was followed quickly by Steve Davies and Jim Allenby, the run chase looked set for failure.

In last night’s other quarter-final, Kumar Sangakkara scored his 100th career century as Surrey beat Yorkshire by 24 runs at Headingley.