Cricket Craig hails ‘character’ of table-topping Somerset
SOMERSET went clear at the top of the South Group thanks to a comprehensive win in their Vitality Blast fixture against Glamorgan in Cardiff.
Despite career-best batting performances from Kiran Carlson and Timm van der Gugten, Glamorgan’s total of 171 all out was not enough as Somerset won by eight wickets with 17 balls to spare.
Three wickets each for Craig Overton and Jack Brooks pegged back Glamorgan’s batting efforts before fifties from Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Will Smeed took the visiting team to victory.
This win puts Somerset clear of Surrey at the top of the Blast table with 18 points.
Overton said: “We started off pretty well getting those five early wickets and then we probably let it slip a little bit. They probably got 20 or 30 more than what they should have with those five early wickets. But credit to them, they played well. Carlson and van der Gugten played well and struck it nicely.
“We probably weren’t quite on it for those six or seven overs but credit to the bowlers at the back end, they picked up those wickets at the end. They could easily have got to 190 at the end so to keep them to 170 we felt confident after it.
“We have bowled pretty well up top all year. The character of the side always tends to come back and the last two games we have finished pretty well with the ball and we finished this game pretty well with the ball again. It is going in the right direction. I don’t think we are 100 per cent perfect yet but it is going in the right direction and winning games like that is always confidence boosting.”
It was a lacklustre start from Glamorgan who struggled in the opening overs having been put into bat. The early wickets of Will Smale, Billy Root and Sam Northeast reduced them to 14-3, with Jack Brooks claiming two wickets and Craig Overton one.
There was a 40-run stand between Carlson and Chris Cooke which took the home team past the fifty mark, but it was Carlson who was doing all the scoring. Cooke had made seven runs when he attempted to carve Overton over the extra cover boundary for six. The ball looked as it was going to clear the rope before a superb onehanded grab at full stretch from Kasey Aldridge sent Glamorgan’s leading run scorer in this competition back to the dugout.
When recently-arrived overseas signing Cam Fletcher was out for a duck two balls later, after he pulled a ball to Sean Dickson at midwicket, Glamorgan were 53-5 and in danger of crumbling to a total of under 100. What followed was a record stand for the sixth wicket between these two teams as Carlson and van der Gugten put on 91 runs to give the home side some hope of winning this contest.
Carlson’s 71 took him past 300 runs for the first time in a Blast season and was his first innings over more than 50 in the format since 2018. Van der Gugten made 48, his fourth important contribution with the bat in his six Blast matches this season as he continues to show off his all-round ability.
The Somerset chase got off to a roaring start thanks to Smeed, but he should have been dimissed in the second over when he was on just 17. He pulled a ball from van der Gugten straight to Billy Root on the deep square leg boundary but the chance wasn’t taken. It was parried over the rope for six and Smeed took full advantage of the life he was given.
Tom Banton was the one wicket to fall inside the Somerset powerplay when he was caught at fine leg by Andy Gorvin when he tried to scoop Ruaidhri Smith but that was the only success for Glamorgan until the 13th over as Smeed and KohlerCadmore took the game away from them. Smeed crashed eight fours and three sixes in an innings of 66 which lasted just 36 balls. By the time he was dismissed by Smith the required rate was down to less than a run-a-ball.
Smeed’s dismissal slowed things down a little bit with the support of Tom Abell, Kohler-Cadmore guided Somerset home with 61 not out. The only moment of further alarm for the visitors came when Andy Gorvin had Kohler-Cadmore caught on the midwicket boundary but it was off a no ball.
Victory was the ninth of Somerset’s Blast campaign and they are closing in on a home quarter-final.