Fireworks set to take place in quarter-finals of the Blast
BEWARE the flashing blade of Liam Livingstone. That is the warning Somerset’s players must heed in front of a sellout Taunton crowd this evening.
The Vitality Blast quarter-final against Lancashire Lightning (7pm start) brings together two sides with realistic hopes of ending summer with a T20 and County Championship double under their belts.
Next month they will meet again at the same venue in Division One of the second stage Championship fixtures, which will determine this season’s title winners.
But tonight’s clash is all about big-hitting. And no one has proved more adept at that in recent months than 28-year-old Lancashire batsman Livingstone.
In July he smashed the fastest ever T20 century for England, off just 42 balls, against Pakistan at Trent Bridge, a murderous innings that featured 9 sixes.
Taking confidence from that whirlwind knock into The Hundred, Livingstone proceeded to smash 348 runs in nine innings for Birmingham Phoenix, 116 more than any other player in the competition.
He cleared the ropes 27 times and boasted a strike-rate of 178.46. Small wonder, then, that when I asked Somerset head coach Jason Kerr about the danger-men in Lancashire’s team, he began with the man at the top of their Blast averages.
“Liam had an unbelievable competition in The Hundred and is fast becoming a household name in the shorter formats of the game,” he said.
“He has the ability to hit good balls out of the park, which you need at top level these days.
“But we have guys who have played with him this summer, which gives us a bit of inside information, and have a seen a lot of footage of him batting.
“We have a definite plan to reduce his effectiveness and it will be interesting to see if our bowlers can implement it. That’s the challenge and we know he will be up for it.”
Craig Overton’s selection yesterday by England, ahead of Lancashire’s Saqib Mahmood, for the Third Test against India was overdue reward for the Somerset seamer, but a blow to his county’s hopes of reaching Blast Finals Day.
But even in his absence, Kerr is confident of a strong performance against the Lightning, pointing to his team’s development over the course of the group stage.
“As the competition progressed, we became a lot clearer in what we were trying to do,” he said. “Players got to know their individual roles and their thinking when under pressure improved.
“We learned from the early defeats. I keep saying we are on a journey as a side and, while that is a long-term project, we have seen tremendous growth this year.”
Nineteen-year-old Will Smeed, a team-mate of Livingstone’s in The Hundred, is Somerset’s leading run-scorer in the Blast this season with 283 at an average of 31.44, while Marchant de Lange is leading wicket-taker with 14.
Both look certain to be involved this evening and the home batting line-up should be boosted by the return of red ball captain Tom Abell, who has developed his T20 game tremendously, after a hamstring injury.
Kerr believes that massive home support in a crowd of around 8,000 will be a factor.
“We are so lucky to have such passionate supporters,” he said. “Tickets sold out in a matter of hours and the following we get at Taunton for all formats of the game is unbelievable.
“That is part of home advantage and the players can draw inspiration from it.”
ZSomerset have not won the T20 competition since 2005 when Graeme Smith led them to victory, while Lancashire will be looking to reach Finals Day for the third time since 2018.
But Kerr’s men have developed a knack of pulling victory out of the fire from seemingly losing positions and have an exciting blend of youth and experience. If they can knock over Livingstone early, their chances will soar.
Somerset have their own T20 international batsman in Tom Banton and, given the nature of the pitches at the Cooper Associates County Ground, the one safe prediction would seem to be a highscoring game with plenty of fireworks. AFAR Gohar’s performances in Gloucestershire’s final four County Championship games of the season could prove hugely significant.
The 26-year-old Pakistan leftarm spinner is expected to make his debut for the club in the Division Two match against Northamptonshire at Bristol, starting on Monday.
Zafar will also face Essex, Glamorgan
and Durham if all goes to plan, and it will be fascinating to see if he can add a new dimension to the team who have improved so much in recent seasons.
Back in April, Mark Alleyne expressed the opinion in this column that Gloucestershire could win a first County Championship title in the next three years.
But he also told me that to do so they would have to either sign or develop a quality spinner, capable of taking wickets regularly in red ball cricket.
This season’s statistics support that view. Of the 143 wickets taken by Gloucestershire bowlers in the Championship, only 12 have fallen to spin.
Graeme van Buuren’s absence from eight of the ten Group 2 games, due to a change in registration rules following Brexit, will have been a factor.
But, like white ball expert Tom Smith, the South African is more renowned as a one-day bowler and is a genuine all-rounder, rather than a specialist spinner.
Zafar, who arrived in time to appear in a second XI game against Glamorgan at rockhampton this week, describes the opportunity to play county cricket as “a dream come true”.
He arrives at the height of his powers, having made his Test debut for Pakistan against New Zealand at Christchurch earlier this year.
Although he didn’t take a wicket in that match, Zafar did demonstrate his prowess with the bat with scores of 34 and 37, going in at eight in the first innings and nine in the second.
Gloucestershire interim head coach Ian Harvey describes him as “an exciting spinner” and he should be at home in English conditions, having played club cricket over here and starred during a Pakistan youth tour to this country in 2013.
While Zafar’s initial time with Gloucestershire will be relatively brief, I wonder if the signing has been made with a view to the future. He may not be weighed down by international commitments next year and clearly relishes the idea of being a county player.
A quartet of four-day games could prove the perfect trial period for a player who currently boasts 144 first class wickets from 40 matches.