Following a blitz that all but sealed the deal for New Zealand, Sophie Devine collected both the Player-of-the-Match and the Player-of-the-Series awards

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2017
ScorecardSophie Devine clobbers a sweep over the midwicket boundary•Getty Images

New Zealand completed a 4-0 whitewash over Pakistan in the T20I series, winning by seven wickets in their final match on the tour of the UAE. Their bowlers came to the fore in the final game, led by medium-pacers Hannah Rowe and Holly Huddleston, who strangled Pakistan with wickets in the middle overs. Sophie Devine then led New Zealand’s charge with the bat, smashing a 17-ball 41 to take the visitors home comfortably – with nine overs to spare.Pakistan on the other hand had crept to 89 for 8 in their 20 overs, with only Javeria Khan showing any resistance with the bat. She scored a 38-ball 36 and was the eighth batsman out in the 19th over. But the rest of Pakistan’s batting faltered; they had started off decently, but from 51 for 2 after 9.2 overs, Pakistan could add only 38 runs off the next 64 balls.Devine smashed seven fours and a six in her 17-ball blitz, before being bowled in the fifth over. By then, New Zealand had already taken 56 runs off the target. Satterthwaite then took over with five fours in her 31-ball knock of 35. She fell in the 10th over, with the team needing eight to win. Suzie Bates was out three balls later – both batsmen dismissed by Aiman Anwer – before Maddy Green (8*) and Katey Martin (1*) sealed the deal.Devine collected the Player-of-the-Match and the Player-of-the-Series awards. She finished with a series tally of 158 runs in four T20Is.

Mason Crane has created a good impression in Australia, but on his English county form his selection would represent a considerable promotion

George Dobell in Sydney01-Jan-20181:57

‘Dreamed of playing in Sydney’ – Stoneman

Mason Crane looks set to make his Test debut in the final match of the Ashes series in Sydney.Crane, the 20-year-old leg-spinner, is set to come into the team in place of either Moeen Ali or Tom Curran as England take the opportunity to blood a new player with the series already decided and the whitewash averted.While it remains possible that Moeen could retain his place if it seems conditions will justify the selection of two spin bowlers, it appears Crane will be first choice if England go in with only one slow bowler.The selection would continue a remarkable journey for Crane. Just over a year ago, he was in Sydney playing Grade cricket for Gordon in a bid to gain experience. So well did it go – he claimed four five-fors and three seven-fors on the way to becoming the leading wicket-taker in New South Wales premier cricket – he was selected for New South Wales’ Sheffield Shield side. That made him their first overseas player since Imran Khan in 1984-85, and their first English player since William Caffyn in the 1960s. He performed admirably, too, with five wickets in the match.But his selection for a Test would be a huge promotion. He claimed only 16 Championship wickets in 2017 – at a cost of 44.68 apiece – and was far from an automatic piece in Hampshire’s side. On this Ashes tour, he has claimed five wickets in first-class matches at a cost of 58.29 apiece.

MacGill backs Crane debut

Stuart MacGill, the former Australia legspinner and a mentor of Mason Crane, is adamant that his Test career should have got underway earlier in the Ashes series.
“I think England’s missed a trick by not playing him earlier in the series to be honest, particularly seeing the bowling hasn’t had the penetration they could have hoped for,” he said.
“One of the big differences between me and Mayso, he’s very resilient. When I was young, it took me a long time to be able to cope with getting smacked around a bit.
“I know this guy has got what it takes to cope with a bad day. I’m a big believer in that being a real guide whether or not a slow bowler will make the grade – and Mayso can.”

Moeen has endured a grim tour, however. As well as claiming just three wickets in the first four Tests at a cost of 135 apiece, he has looked devoid of confidence with the bat and averaged just 19.42. That miserable run culminated in a reckless, frantic innings of 20 in 14 deliveries in Melbourne that suggested he had lost faith in his defensive game against both spin and pace and ended with a catch in the covers.Now, with the Ashes gone and England deciding that Moeen may benefit from a spell out if the firing line, Crane looks set to win his Test debut.But while Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, admits that Moeen has had a miserable tour, he remains confident that, in the “long term” he will again prove himself a top England player.”There’s no time like the present to find out if Mason is ready,” Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, said. “We think he’s a guy that has got the goods and the more he plays at this level the better he will get. You have got to start somewhere.”Like any player, you go through highs and lows. The number of runs and wickets makes it one of his lows. But just a couple of months ago we were singing his praises as one of the best all-rounders in the world. Conditions are a bit different here and it’s taken him longer than he would have liked to feel comfortable; there’s not a lot of spin.”He’s different to Nathan Lyon, who gets over-spin. Mo doesn’t and things don’t happen as quickly, without the bounce that Lyon gets. Mo is a free spirit and one or two shots or wickets and he will be off and running. So I’m not concerned long term.”The fact that Australia have called up slow left-armer Ashton Agar suggests they, too, feel that the pitch will spin. And, if England are of the same mind, it seems inevitable they will want both spin options in the side.Mason Crane in action in an England practice session•Getty Images

“The type of wicket we play on might play a part too,” Bayliss said. “Normally that you can easily play two spinners but looking at the wicket it looked like it had a decent covering of grass.”I think it will still spin towards the end of the game – it’s still the same soil – but we will just have to take a look. There’s been no decision right now. And with the series lost it gives us an opportunity to look at some different people.”Meanwhile England confirmed that Saqlain Mushtaq and Stuart MacGill – both spin bowling consultants – would be working for England in the coming weeks. Saqlain, who has worked for England in a part-time capacity for some time, has recently signed a new contract committing him to more hours than ever in 2018, while MacGill, who worked with Crane when he was playing Grade cricket a few months ago, will join the squad ahead of the Sydney Test.

Jason Roy hailed the strength of England’s ODI batting after he completed a stunning return to form following a difficult 2017 with a “special” innings at the MCG

Daniel Brettig14-Jan-2018Confidence in the men behind him was crucial in Jason Roy’s fearless approach to an innings that grew into the biggest-ever ODI century by an England batsman, guiding the tourists to the highest successful chase in a match at the MCG.Roy teed off early on against Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, showing a willingness to “chance his arm” in the words of the Australia captain Steven Smith that epitomises the daring of England’s limited overs set-up since they started from scratch in the aftermath of a dire 2015 World Cup campaign.From a half-century that took only 32 balls, Roy settled in alongside Joe Root to surpass Alex Hales’ previous England best of 171, and said he was able to do so because of how firmly England’s batsmen believed in each other. Also important was the resolve of England’s limited-overs players to bring positive vigour to the touring team after the trials of an Ashes series lost 4-0.”I think the main thing is knowing how good each other is,” Roy said. “Knowing our middle order is incredibly special and talented and can win games from anywhere. To have that behind you gives you so much confidence at the top of the order. Knowing each other’s roles is important and everybody knows their own roles. That’s something we’ve built on and got a good foundation now. But it’s one win, four more games to go.”It was an absolute honour to be out there on the MCG and to get a score like that, to win our first game of the series is incredibly special. There’s not many words right now but I’m sure in the next couple of days I’ll have a bit more. It is extremely special, especially after the Test series.”It was obviously quite tough, we knew the boys were going to be a bit down and it was our task to come in and lighten up the mood, bring the positivity and get the boys going. I think we’ve done it and there’s a lot more smiles going on now. It’s a good start to the series but it’s by no means finished, we want to be as ruthless as possible.”Roy’s call-up to England more or less coincided with the change in approach that accompanied the emphasis of Andrew Strauss, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace on a more proactive brand of limited-overs cricket, aided by the leadership of Eoin Morgan. He was dropped from the side during the Champions Trophy, after his form tailed off during the first half of 2017, but the enforced absences of Ben Stokes and Alex Hales created an opening that he has charged back through in recent months.”It’s been a while coming, I had a very tough year in 2017 … being dropped from the side and then being brought back into it towards the end of the year,” Roy said of his personal turnaround. “It kind of gave me a bit of a kick to recognise where I’m at, where my preparation is and start building up a platform to get ready for internationals. It has turned round incredibly quickly, that’s the nature of this game – especially in one-day and T20 cricket.”I haven’t been doing too many things too differently, I had a long net session yesterday with a couple of the coaches and was playing the ball a lot later but other than that all my routines have been pretty similar since I’ve started. I think cricket tests you and you start questioning yourself and start questioning your preparation and how you’re playing the ball and all this sort of rubbish, and it was just a case of clearing my head.”I’ve got 50 overs to bat and if I bat 50 overs on good pitches in Australia I’m going to get to a good score, and that was my mentality. I didn’t go out there thinking I’m going to go all guns blazing, I went out there and started as I’ve started every other net session since I’ve been in Australia, trying to play the ball late, playing strong shots and all these cliches, but it was just a case of finding the gaps. Some innings you hit them straight to fielders, some innings you don’t.”Roy now owns two of England’s four highest ODI innings, including 162 against Sri Lanka at The Oval in 2016, while Hales’ innings took place against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in the same summer. Robin Smith’s unbeaten 167 against the Australians at Edgbaston in 1993 had long stood as the high water mark, but Roy said 200 was no longer out of the question. “Yeah I hope so,” he said. “I think we’ve got ourselves closer and closer, we’re edging ourselves towards the 200. It’s by no stretch of the imagination impossible for us.”Never in his ODI career had Roy batted for more than 40 overs, and he said he had been able to mentally reset in the aftermath of the moment on 91 when he was given lbw to an Adam Zampa googly. Roy successfully referred it after conferring with Root, and had his ears stung by a liberal offering of unsolicited advice from the Australian fielders.”I kind of turned away because I did feel I might’ve been outside the line,” Roy said. “Then I heard them cheering and saying a few things and I was like ‘you’re kidding me’ and then looked at Rooty and was like ‘come on mate, surely it’s outside the line’ and he’s like ‘yeah outside the line 100%’. Then they started going on about me if I’m actually playing a shot and all this sort of stuff and there was a bit of that, but I think that kind of switched me into another innings, got me motivated to go big and go long.”Though they ended up needing to chase more runs than had ever been successfully run down in a match at the MCG, England were given a collective spring in their step by the early venom shown by Mark Wood, fit again after his latest injury problems. David Warner’s early exit to a vicious rising ball, and several other deliveries that tested the reflexes of Steven Smith and Aaron Finch, showed that the England ODI team were going to go after the hosts.”Yeah too right, a bit of their own medicine was quite nice,” Roy said when asked about whether it had been helpful to see Austrlaia’s batsmen discomforted by speed. “Obviously the boys have copped it a bit over the last month or so and to see Woody coming in and doing that is a huge positive for us and he’s a massive asset I think.”

Australia’s vice-captain is one demerit point away from a ban after he accepted a level two charge from the ICC for his part in the stairwell confrontation with Quinton de Kock

Daniel Brettig and Firdose Moonda07-Mar-2018Australia’s vice-captain David Warner is one demerit point away from a ban after he accepted a level two charge from the ICC for his part in the stairwell confrontation with Quinton de Kock in Durban.De Kock, however, has contested the level one charge against him and will attend a hearing – along with South Africa captain Faf du Plessis and manager Mohammed Moosajee – in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday evening. Match Referee Jeff Crowe will adjudicate on the matter.Warner was hit with three demerit points for the offence and also fined 75% of his match fee, about A$13,500, after meetings between the match referee Jeff Crowe and Australian team management on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Warner joined Kagiso Rabada and Faf du Plessis on the South African side in this series, as players who will be suspended if they are found guilty of one more disciplinary infraction.CCTV footage from the fourth day of the Durban Test showed Warner walking up the stairs to the players’ dressing room, engaged in heated conversation with someone else. As the clip rolled on, it emerged that he was talking to de Kock, and at several points had to be restrained by his team-mates until the Australia captain Steven Smith came out to pull his vice-captain away from the scene.

The medium-pacer took four wickets off four balls in a sensational finish, helping Abahani Limited to an 11-run win

Mohammad Isam06-Mar-2018Mashrafe Mortaza’s four wickets off four balls in the last over made for was a sensational finish as he powered Abahani Limited to an 11-run win over Agrani Bank in the Dhaka Premier League.

Mashrafe on his four in four

Mashrafe Mortaza said that he used the offcutter to take all four wickets in the last over against Agrani Bank in the Dhaka Premier League.
“My performance is helping me prepare for the rest of the year,” Mashrafe said. “With the old ball, my strength is the cutter and it is with this delivery that I took the last four wickets. There’s always pressure on the bowler. I was bowling with the third-man up so an edge was going to go for four. I thought of pushing him back but then again, being positive is very important in these situations.”
Mashrafe has already taken 25 wickets at 11.92 bowling average in eight DPL matches. He said that it has been a great way to keep himself in form as he has to wait till mid-July to play ODIs again.
“Others may be playing Tests and T20s but this tournament is a great chance for me to stay fit and in form. I want to play all 16 matches so that I can start the next ODI series with the same rhythm I finished the [January] tri-series,” he said.

At the Fatullah Cricket Stadium, Agrani Bank needed 13 runs off the last over with four wickets in hand, but after Abdur Razzak took a single off the first ball, Dhiman Ghosh holed out to long-on after making a 27-ball 46. In the next two balls, Mashrafe had Razzak caught at short fine-leg and Shafiul Islam at deep midwicket to complete his first hat-trick in a List-A match.
.
To top off the celebration, Fazle Rabby’s top edge was comfortably caught by wicket-keeper Mohammad Mithun as Mashrafe became the first Bangladeshi bowler to take four wickets in four balls in List-A cricket, finishing with 6 for 44 in 9.5 overs. He became the seventh bowler in List-A history to achieve the feat, while this was the third hat-trick in this season’s Dhaka Premier League.Mashrafe’s performance completely upended the other performers in this match. Up until that last over Agrani Bank had reached within 12 runs of Abahani’s 290 for 6, thanks mainly to Shahriar Nafees’ 121 off 119 balls with 13 fours and three sixes. Nafees added 146 runs for the third wicket with Raza Ali Dar, who contributed with 62 off 80 balls.But the pair fell within 16 balls of each other, but Dhiman was holding firm until Mashrafe struck four times.Earlier, Nazmul Hossain Shanto took Abahani to the big score with his unbeaten 133. He struck 11 fours and three sixes as Shanto added 140 runs for the fifth wicket with Mohammad Mithun.Getty Images

There was drama at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, too, where Gazi Group Cricketers beat Mohammedan Sporting Club by 29 runs in a low-scoring contest.The defending champions’ struggle in this year’s competition continued having been bowled out for 137 in 35.4 overs, batting first. But Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Nayeem Hasan led a fine bowling effort; they took three wickets each while Mahedi Hasan and Tipu Sultan took two each as Mohammedan were bowled out for 108 runs in 33.2 overs.Sultan took the first two wickets before the lunch break. Raqibul Hasan and Shamsur Rahman, whose 22 and 19 respectively were Mohammedan’s highest scores, both fell to Nayeem. Bipul Sharma, Mohammedan’s foreign recruit, lasted 35 minutes at the crease before getting caught behind off Rabbi for fourShafiul Hayet’s brilliant one-handed reflex catch at silly mid-off to remove Qazi Onek was one of the highlights of Gazi Group’s performance.

Rabbi finished the game getting Mohammad Azim’s wicket, to hand them only their third win this year, though they remain in the relegation zone.Raton Gomes/BCB

The dramatic day was rounded off at the BKSP-3 Gound where Prime Bank Cricket Club plundered 16 runs off the last over to beat Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club by one wicket with only two balls to spare.Mamun Hossain dismissed Monir Hossain off the first ball of the 50th over, before Sajjadul Haque struck a six. But he fell next ball, having made 51 off 38 balls. No 10 Shoriful Haque took two runs off the next ball before depositing Mamun’s next delivery, a no-ball, for a six. He bowled another no-ball to concede the game.Prime Bank were kept on track of their 287-run chase by Mehrab Hossain jnr and Mehedi Maruf who added 147 runs for the opening stand. Mehedi made 82 off 90 balls with six fours and three sixes but Mehrab stuck around after Prime Bank suffered a batting collapse in their middle-order. He fell in the 44th over, having made 102 off 125 balls with 13 fours. Sajjadul had kept them afloat with his three sixes and one four, before Mamun’s meltdown.Earlier, Marshall Ayub’s 135 took Doleshwar to 286-5 in 50 overs. Marshall struck 14 fours and two sixes; he added 124 runs for the third wicket with Fazle Mahmud, and another 132 runs for the fourth wicket with Farhad Hossain, who chipped in with a 53-ball 67 that had two fours and three sixes.

He will miss the matches against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday and against Rajasthan Royals on April 20

Deivarayan Muthu12-Apr-20182:45

Dasgupta: Raina is the batting fulcrum of CSK

Hours after Chennai Super Kings lost their home advantage for the rest of the 2018 season, they suffered another blow with Suresh Raina being ruled out of the side’s next two matches because of a calf injury. Raina will miss a Super Kings match for the first time in his career when he won’t appear against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on Sunday and against Rajasthan Royals in Pune on April 20.Raina had sustained the injury during Super Kings’ successful chase of 203 against Kolkata Knight Riders in their first match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in nearly three years. Raina needed medical attention on Tuesday after completing a single against Sunil Narine in the 10th over of the chase. He struggled to run between the wickets before eventually holing out for 14 off 12 balls.Raina’s absence further depletes a middle order that is already missing Kedar Jadhav, who had been ruled out of the the tournament with a hamstring injury.However, Faf du Plessis could be available for Sunday’s match as he is recovering from a finger injury and a side strain. M Vijay, who had missed the tournament opener against Mumbai because he was hit in the ribs while training before the match, was available for selection for the match against Knight Riders, according to batting coach Michael Hussey, but was not picked. Raina’s injury could push Vijay to the top and Ambati Rayudu into the middle order.Delhi’s Dhruv Shorey and Kshitiz Sharma and Tamil Nadu’s N Jagadeesan are the uncapped Indian batsmen in the squad. Jadhav’s replacement David Willey “hasn’t joined the squad as his visa process is not complete yet,” a CSK official told ESPNcricinfo. “He will not be available for the Mohali match but could be expected to be available for the Rajasthan match.”Super Kings had also lost New Zealand allrounder Mitchell Santner to injury before the tournament began and have not named a replacement for him yet.

Spin limited Rajasthan Royals to 160 and an aggressive batting approach then helped Kolkata Knight Riders chase down their target with six balls remaining

The Report by Nikhil Kalro18-Apr-2018
3:05

Tait: Royals lacked intensity with the ball

Kolkata Knight Riders have banked on a traditional modus operandi, but have also adopted a new approach this season. Spin, their longtime asset, first limited Rajasthan Royals to 160 on a sluggish surface. Their aggressive batting strategy then helped them chase down that target with ease, with seven wickets in hand. The win took them to the top of the points table.Sunil Narine conceded 48 runs in four overs, his most expensive returns in the IPL. But the rest of the spinners – Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav and Nitish Rana – conceded 52 runs off 10 overs and took four wickets. Brisk cameos were all Knight Riders required in a middling chase. Narine, Robin Uthappa, Rana and Dinesh Karthik all scored at a strike rate of at least 125 to ensure there were no flutters in the end.

Short: Pace v spin

D’Arcy Short scored 572 runs in 11 matches, with a highest score of 122*, in the 2017-18 Big Bash League. Almost all of those runs were made on hard, bouncy pitches. On slower pitches in India, his batting hasn’t quite adapted.He began his IPL career with two run-outs followed by a 17-ball 11 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a team total of 217. On Wednesday, Short struggled against spin, neither making decisive forward movements to smother the turn nor using the depth of the crease to play the ball late. Eventually, he was bowled by Nitish Rana’s part-time offspin for 44 off 43 balls. He made 26 off 15 balls against pace, but just 18 off 28 against spin. It was Ajinkya Rahane, unexpectedly, who gave Royals what little early impetus they had, scoring 36 off 19 including four successive fours off Narine’s first over.1:36

Coach’s Diary: Analysing Royals’ batting (dis)order

A stuttering finish

Royals had used up the first 10 overs to set a platform, scoring 71 for 2 in that period. Short and Rahul Tripathi then scored 24 runs off the next two overs. Just when they seemed set to launch, with a strong middle order to follow, the innings fell away.Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler were forced to stabilise the innings after Short and Tripathi fell against spin. Two quiet overs followed. Then, Stokes holed out at the start of the 17th over against Chawla. Three more wickets would fall as Royals limped to 160 for 8, having managed just 65 off the last eight overs. This despite Narine’s unusual profligacy.

Knight Riders’ batting approach

In an interview during the first innings, Chris Lynn had said batsmen would need to play “with a vertical bat” on this slow, low pitch. His first ball was a punch to mid-off with a straight bat. Off his next ball against K Gowtham’s flat darts, he made himself room and missed a cut, a shot fraught with risk on a pitch with variable – and often low – bounce. A two-ball duck put Knight Riders under pressure.But, as has been the case right through the season, their top order was bent on counter-attacking. It worked again. Narine and Uthappa added 69 for the second wicket off 49 balls. Rana then struck an unbeaten 35 off 27 balls with no pressure of a rising required rate and Karthik finished the innings with a 23-ball 42. With the plausibility of false shots and wrong decisions under pressure, chases with an asking rates of over eight can often get close in T20s, but Knight Riders’ tactics meant they had plenty of room for error. None were made in a clinical finish.

Our live report from Taunton for the opening rounds of the Women’s T20 Triangular

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jun-2018Welcome to our live blog for the opening matches in the Women’s T20 Triangular between England, South Africa and New Zealand. We will be bringing you updates, stats and colour from the first two games at Taunton, starting with New Zealand v South Africa at 1pm, and continuing with England v South Africa at 5.40pm

Ollie Rayner was loaned out by Middlesex after a poor season, but two wickets suggested he might yet lighten Hampshire’s spin crisis

ECB Reporters Network22-Jun-2018
ScorecardOllie Rayner grabbed his first two Hampshire wickets but Yorkshire kept the game in the balance by taking a slender two-run deficit into the final day.Offspinner Rayner only joined Hampshire on loan at the beginning of the week, having been dropped from Middlesex’s squad to face Leicestershire, to cover injuries for Mason Crane and Brad Taylor, along with England Lions’ Liam Dawson.And while Dawson performed an impressive four wicket haul on international duty, Rayner deputised with skill during a six over spell of 2 for 4.Yorkshire had been given the entire 35 overs of the night session to eat away at Hampshire’s 93-run first innings lead, after Gareth Berg’s fifty with the tail, and start to rebuild an advantage of their own.Alex Lees, having only scored 10 runs in his previous five Specsavers County Championship innings this season, started off with vigour, taking Fidel Edwards for four boundaries in his first over.Opening partner Adam Lyth was more circumspect with his 17 but became Rayner’s first Hampshire wicket as he tentatively left his bat outside off stump to edge to keeper Tom Alsop.Exactly two overs later, Rayner was celebrating again when he had Lees lbw to a straight delivery, for a confidence building 39.Yorkshire ended the day with key batsmen Gary Ballance, who scored a century in the first innings, and Indian’s Test star Cheteshwar Pujara unbeaten on 18 and 14.Earlier, Jimmy Adams and Tom Alsop started the day looking to build on their 132 and 62 not outs – but the latter could only add a single before departing in the second over of the day.The left hander was plumb lbw to Brooks – ending a slow paced 179-run stand, from a mammoth 67.2 overs.The run scoring remained hard going throughout the morning session, with accurate bowling with a difficult to get away soft pink ball offering nothing to either side.Adams in particular struggled to get going again on the third day, only managing 15 runs in 85 minutes before he was undone by extra bounce from Tim Bresnan and was caught behind for a season high 147.Hampshire tiptoed to 300 as they managed to reach a third batting point with seven balls of the spare before Brooks had Ian Holland, after a patient 31 caught, and Steven Patterson dismissed Ollie Rayner for a duck both caught behind.Just as Yorkshire sniffed a first innings lead, Kyle Abbott and Berg added 74 in a frustrating eighth wicket stand – with the all-rounders accelerating the run-rate.Berg was left stranded unbeaten on 84, with Hampshire bowled out for 443 and boasting a strong lead of 93.

Somerset’s victory in the West Country derby satisfied local tastes as Taunton favourite Peter Trego lay waste to the Gloucestershire attack

ECB Reporters Network06-Jul-2018
ScorecardSomerset began their Vitality Blast campaign in style with a rousing six-wicket win over arch-rivals Gloucestershire at Taunton.A 7,000 crowd saw the visitors post 188 for 6 after losing the toss, Ryan Higgins leading the way with 55 off 35 balls and Jack Taylor contributing 34. Roelof van der Merwe was the pick of the Somerset bowlers, conceding only 22 from his four overs.In reply, Steve Davies (60) and Peter Trego (72 not out) set about an injury-hit Gloucestershire attack with a blistering second-wicket stand of 90 in 7.1 overs to lay the foundation for a convincing victory with 19 balls to spareGloucestershire were never able to go into overdrive on a true pitch, losing wickets at vital times. Jamie Overton conceded 20 off the final over and was grateful to see Tom Abell take a brilliant diving catch at wide long-on to end Higgins’ entertaining knock.The late blast meant took Gloucestershire to a reasonable total, having been 158 for five at the end of the 18th over, bowled by wily left-arm spinner van der Merwe.

Download our T20 Blast Podcast

Dan Norcross and Jarrod Kimber preview the Vitality T20 Blast 2018
Listen on ESPN Radio
Subscribe on iTunes

Miles Hammond, Michael Klinger, Benny Howell and Ian Cockbain all got starts only to surrender their wickets for scores of less than 23 as Somerset rotated their bowlers constantly,.It took a fifth-wicket stand of 58 in less than six overs between Taylor and Higgins to guide Gloucestershire to respectability. But the entire innings featured only 3 sixes on a high-scoring ground with some short boundaries.The second over of Somerset’s reply saw Davies spilled at deep square by Higgins off Liam Norwell, the ball dropping over the boundary for six. Davies then took a four and another six off the next two deliveries.Higgins then held a catch in the deep to dismiss Johann Myburgh off David Payne, but Gloucestershire’s problems worsened when Norwell, his season already ravaged by injury, hobbled off after bowling only three balls of his second over.Davies and Trego piled on the pressure with some savage strokeplay, taking Somerset to 94 for one off seven overs by smiting 53 off 18 balls, sent down by Howell, Thisara Perera.and Tom Smith. The half-century stand occupied just 25 deliveries.Davies went to 50 off 21 balls with a six off Howell in the eighth over, also bringing up the hundred and Gloucestershire needed a miracle.
Higgins had Davies caught on the deep-square boundary, but there was no let-up as James Hildreth smashed Payne for six and collected another maximum off Tom Smith with a reverse sweep.Hildreth fell for 25 to another big swing, but Trego moved to fifty off 30 balls and Corey Anderson (24) helped see Somerset home.