Metro Bank One Day Cup 2024 Semi-Final

Somerset v Leicestershire – 18^th August – Taunton

Somerset had finished top of their group and qualified for a home semi-final.

Somerset. G.W. Thomas, A.R.I. Umeed, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K Rew (w), S.R. Dickson (c), B.G.F. Green, A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach, R.P. Meredith.

Leicestershire. I.G. Holland, S.D. Budinger, L.J. Hill (c), A.M. Rahane, P.S.P. Handscomb, O.B. Cox (w), L.P.J. Kimber, L. Trevaskis, T.A.R. Scriven, R.I. Walker, C.J.C. Wright.

Toss. Leicestershire. Elected to field.

A wonderful game of cricket

This was a match between two teams denuded of their best players by selection for The Hundred, playing in a competition which has received no television coverage and precious little press coverage. It was a match played in front of a crowd of about three and a half thousand. And yet, from my seat in the elevated section of the Trescothick Pavilion, it bore comparison with the classic encounters of the Gillette and Benson and Hedges Cups and the John Player League in their heyday, forty or fifty years before and the incredible atmosphere which accompanied them. Times when the crowd seemed as much a part of the match as the players.  

For a classic match, both teams need to play their part. Somerset may have won this match in the end, but Leicestershire played their full part too, and might on another day have achieved a different result. They and Somerset fought toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball for nearly seven hours until, with two overs to go, the match finally fell out of Leicestershire’s reach. As far as could be judged from 50 feet above the ground and 80 yards away, the match was played in the best of cricketing spirit too. The Somerset crowd applauded and roared, but a small coterie of Leicestershire supporters sitting in the Priory Bridge Road Stand never stopped cheering their team either.

The frenetic, early onslaught of a T20 powerplay seemed a million miles away as George Thomas and Andy Umeed eschewed the temptation to hit through the powerplay fielding restrictions and concentrated on building a base. By the end of the third over, there were four runs on the board, Ian Holland from the Trescothick Pavilion End and Chris Wright from the River End contributing to that with some well-directed bowling. By the end of the tenth over, Somerset had reached 42 for 0 with just three boundaries. The bowlers had not relented, and the batters had taken no liberties, but Thomas and Umeed looked untroubled by the score as if a plan were being unfurled. The quiet start did not concern the crowd either. It was emitting a healthy chatter, rather as if it was playing itself in like Thomas and Umeed.

With overs passing, Leicestershire began to run through their hand of bowlers, Tom Scriven and Roman Walker replacing Holland and Wright. Thomas and Umeed looked a little harder for runs, Thomas beginning to find the boundary while Umeed pushed hard for ones and twos. But, as overs ticked by, the rate began to seem sluggish. There was a little luck for Thomas when he mishit one lofted drive off Scriven too close to the mid-on fielder for comfort, Scriven looking to Cox behind the stumps as if in protest at his ill luck. Leicestershire might have protested their luck again when a bottom edge from Thomas bounced over the stumps. As a hint of uneasiness crept into the home crowd at the scoring rate, “Two there,” shouted one spectator as if trying to move things along when Umeed leaned into a controlled on drive.

Thomas though was finding the middle and a four, perfectly driven between the mid-off and extra cover fielders to Gimblet’s Hill had someone shouting, “Shot! There were cheers for a drive to Gimblett’s Hill from Umeed which again evaded a closing fielder. Two lofted drives in succession past mid-on from Thomas brought cheers but, rooted to the crease by the keeper standing up, he attempted to turn Scriven into the leg side, missed and the umpire raised his finger. Somerset 91 for 1 after 19 overs. Thomas 47 from 64 balls. Somerset’s base had been established and the scoreboard showed the run rate had reached 4.8 an over. Not quite so slow as it had at times felt.

Umeed and Lewis Goldsworthy began again, pushing the ball around and someone behind me said, “Nothing in this pitch. Better get 300 I think.” Umeed tried to pick up the rate. A scoop off the left arm spin of Liam Trevaskis cleared the keeper for four, but a monumental drive off Walker hurtled towards the heavens and Holland backpedalled towards the Trescothick Pavilion, feet pumping as if he were trying to stamp out rampant ants. It was an ungainly pursuit, but he judged the catch perfectly. Somerset 120 for 2 in the 27^th over. Umeed 57 from 76 balls. It felt like Leicestershire held a slight advantage, and some were still concerned that Somerset were not going fast enough.

James Rew joined Goldsworthy, and the pair began to build again. Overs were ticking by though as the Leicestershire bowlers continued to find a nagging line and length. The distant buzz of the far crowd and the chatter of the near one were becoming more tense as the window for Somerset acceleration narrowed. Still, the batters exuded no sense of urgency. They continued mainly with singles and occasional twos from pushes and controlled drives. Boundaries, when they came, were decisively and precisely struck from, it seemed, balls patiently waited for.

After 30 overs, 135 for 2 suggested 300 was at the very upper end of possibilities. Still, there seemed no hurry from the batters, but that was deceptive. Boundaries were still coming, if still it seemed, too slowly, two in the four overs after the 30^th. With Somerset holding their wickets, and Leicestershire keeping the bowling tight, the steadily rising tension was beginning bite. “Something has to give,” someone might have said, but didn’t. What was noticeable though was the number of ones and twos. They were being scored from most balls. Those four overs may have produced only two fours, but they produced 27 runs and, crucially, no wickets.

Still, neither side gave an inch. A fielder dived full-length with arms outstretched to stop a pull from Goldsworthy. Two runs instead of four. A lofted drive from Goldsworthy off Kimber’s off-spin just cleared the extra cover fielder and crossed the boundary to a cry of, “Shot!” A sprinted single brought a relieved cry of, “Well run.” A skyed drive from Rew was chased hard but landed just beyond the pursuing fielder. Two runs came from it. Fine margins and a wincing moment for both sets of supporters. After 34 overs, the score was 162 for 2. Sixteen overs and eight wickets left. Ted Dexter’s description of Sussex’s batting tactics in the early years of the Gillette Cup, which Sussex won in its first two seasons, sprang to mind. For the first half of the innings, he said, they concentrated primarily on keeping as many wickets in hand as possible. Somerset had done that for 34 overs and still had eight wickets in hand. With 16 overs remaining, an onslaught could not be long delayed. The rising anticipation was palpable.

Leicestershire brought back Wright. The crunch was coming. Goldsworthy drove him back over his head and the Trescothick Pavilion boundary, those of us at the top having to wait for those below to cheer before the six was confirmed. A single brought up the fifty partnership more quickly than most had realised, and Rew pulled Wright through straight midwicket towards Gimblett’s Hill. It bounced inches short of the inner ring fielder diving towards it and burst through his hands. Four runs. Fine margins again. That, or his diminishing supply of overs, saw Wright off. Leicestershire shuffled their bowlers. Holland, Scriven and Trevaskis bowled the next three overs. Somerset returned to pilfering singles, 13 and a two coming from those three overs, including six singles in an over from Scriven. At 189 for 2 from 38 overs, 300 was still a long way off. But eight wickets still stood and the two batters at the crease were well set, Goldsworthy on 46 from 50 balls and Rew on 38 from 40.

Dexter’s theory, applied in modern circumstances, was about to be put to the test. Somerset had kept their wickets and Goldsworthy and Rew suddenly unleashed a deluge of boundaries. Goldsworthy went to his fifty and tremendous applause with an off drive to Gimblett’s Hill which perfectly bisected the mid-off and cover fielders. In an over from the, until then, relatively parsimonious Trevaskis, Rew swept through long leg to the Ondaatje boundary, “Yes!” someone shouted amid the cheers as if the burgeoning tension had been released, for it was clear the charge was on. Rew followed the sweep with a reverse sweep and another sweep before putting the icing on the cake of the over with a single to reach his fifty. More extended applause and Somerset were suddenly 215 for 2 with still ten overs to be bowled and eight wickets sitting in the Pavilion. In the days of T20, 300 no longer seemed so far-fetched a prospect.

Even less so when 35 runs came from the next three overs despite the return of Wright. Goldsworthy drove him straight and just cleared the fielder and the boundary in front of the Lord Ian Botham Stand to a shout of, “Yeah!” amidst a cacophony of cheers. There followed a string of fours from Goldsworthy and especially Rew in an array of swinging bats, flying balls and flailing fielders running their feet off and flinging themselves about desperately trying to defend the Taunton boundaries. Eventually, Rew was brilliantly caught by Louis Kimber off a slog sweep from a foot outside off stump off Wright. Kimber had run flat out along the Caddick Pavilion boundary towards the Ondaatje Stand and just caught the ball with a full-length dive. It was a catch which brought applause from the Somerset crowd before the ovation for Rew, for which some stood as he walked off for 71 from 57 balls. Somerset 251 for 3, five and a half overs left and 300 now clearly within their sights.

That calculation reckoned without Goldsworthy. He is not the most classical of players, but he is a fighter and he can read a game. He had read this one perfectly, built a base with more nerve than some of us watching, and, in the next two and a half overs struck three sixes, and with Dickson, added 12 other assorted runs. Two of the sixes, off Holland, were pulled to virtually the same spot next to the Leicestershire kit in front of the Caddick Pavilion. The third, off Trevaskis, was driven into the third row of the Somerset Stand next to the Garner Gates. With four overs to go, Somerset were suddenly 282 for 3 and the discussion was no longer about whether they would reach 300, but how far past it they might get. Sean Dickson took ten off the last two balls of Holland’s next over, the six clearing the Ondaatje Stand and landing in the Fan Village.

The first ball of the next over, from Walker, was pushed into the on side by Goldsworthy and a well-run two took Somerset to that sought-after 300. It also took Goldsworthy to his century from 79 balls and an instantaneous, unanimous and lengthy standing ovation which was joined by the Leicestershire team. It had been that sort of innings, and the response of the Leicestershire team reflected the spirit in which the match was being played.

As the Somerset innings moved towards its conclusion, Dickson, 18 from 9 balls, was caught at long on off Walker and Ben Green was met with cheers as he walked out. Then, as Goldsworthy scooped Scriven for four a young boy broke the tension for an instant by saying, “Dad, I’m hungry.” He did not have long to wait, just long enough though for Green, helped by a four and a single from Goldsworthy, to repay the cheers by hitting the final over, from Walker, for 1, 4, 1, 6, 4, 3, the six being driven towards the heavens but with enough power to clear the rope in front of the Hildreth Stand. The last 15 overs had left the crowd buzzing and breathless but still with enough energy to applaud Goldsworthy all the way to the Pavilion, 115 not out from 86 balls, as the scoreboard showed 334 for 4. Perhaps, even in its embryonic days, Ted Dexter knew a thing or two about what he would have called limited overs cricket.

“What about that then?” asked an excited voice as I made to leave the stand. Answering his own question, he said, “We couldn’t defend over 300 against Derbyshire. This isn’t over. But it’s a tremendous effort from this team. Perfectly judged. But,” and he emphasized the ‘but’, “If we can get past Leicestershire we have a real chance of going on and winning the competition because they are probably the best team in the tournament.” It was a thought to carry into the Leicestershire innings.

Beginning their innings needing to score at 6.7 runs an over, Leicestershire took a different approach to Somerset. While Holland concentrated on securing an end, Sol Budinger took advantage of the powerplay field and attacked. There were two drives through the covers for four in the first two overs and Riley Meredith, who was inclined to pitch short from the River End, was pulled and cut to the boundary twice in an over. With the score on 43 for 0 after six overs Somerset’s 334 did not look out of reach and, ‘they are the best team in the tournament’ raised a sliver of anxiety. I had though reckoned without the nagging, inquisitorial bowling of Josh Davey. The left-handed Budinger swung the smoothest of lofted pulls and Archie Vaughan swallowed the catch on the Somerset Stand boundary. Leicestershire 54 for 1 in the ninth over. Budinger 33 from 28 balls. Leicestershire were precisely on the required run rate, but against a powerplay field, and they had lost a wicket. Was it a fair exchange I wondered.

Now the required rate began to rise as Leicestershire established a new partnership. The scoring was mainly in singles garnered from a field well spread after the tenth over, although a four from Holland glanced off Ben Green to the Lord Ian Botham Stand was perfectly executed. But when Lewis Hill attempted to pull Green towards the Caddick Pavilion, a thick edge was caught by Thomas running in from the boundary. Leicestershire 96 for 2 after 17 overs. Hill 19 from 28 balls. Required run rate 7.2. Kasey Aldridge joined the attack at the River End and, bowling full, kept Leicestershire to a single. That the required rate immediately rose from 7.2 to 7.4 was a reminder of the task which Leicestershire faced. Their situation worsened when Holland attempted to play across his pads to Green and was bowled. Leicestershire 101 for 3 in the 19^th over. Holland 40 from 56 balls. Required rate 7.5.

The crowd was now absolutely buzzing. Cheers greeted the wicket, applause followed it both for Green and for Holland and there were loud cheers for Green from the Trescothick Pavilion when, at the end of the over, he came to field in front of it. Again, Leicestershire tried to retrench. Until Ajinkya Rahane hooked Green. Again, the connection was not quite good enough and he was caught in front of the Caddick Pavilion by substitute Ned Leonard. “Yes!” the deafening chorus from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion. Leicestershire 106 for 4 after 20 overs. Rahane 3 from 11 balls. Required rate 7.9. Ben Green, Somerset’s specialist white ball destroyer had struck again, and again he was cheered and applauded as he reached the boundary. And again, Leicestershire, in the shape of Peter Handscomb and Ben Cox began to rebuild, and again the required rate rose. It was 8.4 by the end of the 23^rd over, a maiden from Aldridge, who was still bowling mainly full with impressive pace and accuracy. Leicestershire were 117 for 4, still 218 short with 27 overs and six wickets remaining.

It was here that I decided to honour a promise and walk around the ground to say hello to a couple of acquaintances who had come to the match. My meander coincided with Leicestershire returning to the attack. Not all-out attack, the required rate continued to edge up, but they gave every appearance of at least keeping in touch with the target and preparing the ground for an assault. As I walked, the ball began to find the boundary. Four times in the first two overs as Handscomb began to loft the ball. Twice it crossed the Ondaatje boundary as I walked past that corner of the ground. Three times in two overs, Handscomb drove through the off side to the boundary and Cox pulled Aldridge to the Priory Bridge Road boundary as I reached the gap between it and the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. Leicestershire passed 150 while I was talking to my friends, “I think we’ll be all right,” one of them said, “Don’t you?” “It may depend on us getting Handscomb,” my reply. “He is a good player, and he looks in top form.” “You always were the pessimist,” she replied. And she was right, at least in the middle of Somerset matches. Then my phone buzzed. “I think the pressure is on them. Just,” said the online watcher, “But that will shift if we don’t break this partnership,” was perhaps the more balanced view.

By the time I had returned to my seat, the required rate had passed nine, the point beyond which life gets really difficult for the batting side in 50-over cricket. Perhaps the rate passing nine was the trigger for the next three overs. They produced 34 runs and the required rate fell to 8.5. One of those overs, from Goldsworthy, cost 17 runs including a perfectly swept six from Handscomb. It crossed the Ondaatje boundary, took him to his fifty and some generous applause. “Leicestershire! Leicestershire! Leicestershire!” chanted a small group of supporters in the Priory Bridge Road Stand. Meredith was cut and pulled for four as he continued to attack with the fast short ball. It took Leicestershire to 198 for 4 after 34 overs. Duckworth Lewis had the par score at 219 but it didn’t feel like that if you were a Somerset supporter, at least an habitually pessimistic one. With sixteen overs remaining, 137 somehow seemed within range if Handscomb stayed in with some support.

Even more so when Handscomb pulled Green over the Caddick boundary for another six. It was about now that the floodlights came on and I became aware that the Somerset crowd were applauding every dot ball and most singles too. Caught up in the tension of a match as tight as this one, it is easy to be so focused on the cricket that sometimes you do not notice the gradual build-up of the crowd’s reactions. After the flurry of boundaries, the Somerset bowling again began to bear down on the batters. There were still boundaries, but fewer. Singles too, but fewer. Archie Vaughan, who had patrolled the Somerset Stand boundary throughout the innings as if the game depended on it, was cheered when a sprint and throw reduced a two to a single. “His throws come in next to the stumps every time,” someone said.

After 40 overs, Leicestershire had reached 236 for 4. Ninety-nine needed in ten overs. Somerset had scored 119 off the last ten overs. But, and perhaps it was a crucial ‘but’, Somerset had reached 40 overs only two wickets down. And then, tension rising, Cox tried to steer Aldridge through point and edged the ball to Rew. With virtually every seat in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion taken, the cheer was deafening. People stood to applaud the wicket, apart from the few Leicestershire supporters whose faces told a different story, and you could sense relief coursing through Somerset veins. The difference between the two sets of supporters, a millimetre or two of bat. The difference between 237 for 4 and 237 for 5 could not be measured, but the opposing faces told all.

Jack Leach came on at the River End. “This isn’t a wicket for spinners,” someone worried. Kimber dropped to one knee, attempted to clear the River End boundary, miscued and the ball steepled to the heavens. Kimber waited an age for the outcome as Aldridge waited for what seemed an eternity under the ball. The result, another colossal cheer. Leicestershire 240 for 6. Kimber 2 from 5 balls. “Leicestershire! Leicestershire! Leicestershire!” chanted the small group in the Priory Bridge Road Stand in response. “Somerset! Somerset! Somerset!” the reply from a group in the Somerset Stand. An over later, Trevaskis skyed Aldridge towards midwicket and Aldridge pursued the ball. It had gone so high, Trevaskis had time to complete an easy single and then wait before the ball fell into Aldridge’s hands. Leicestershire 245 for 7 in the 43^rd over. Trevaskis 2 from 3 balls. “Come on Somerset!” someone urged as the ground buzzed for all it was worth, and still the Leicestershire supporters chanted.

By the end of the over, the required run rate had topped 12 with 87 needed in seven overs. Like their supporters in the Priory Bridge Road Stand, Leicestershire did not give up. Virtually every ball was now being scored from and the cacophony of chatter, cheers and applause was continuous with the occasional, “Leicestershire! Leicestershire!” Leicestershire!” breaking through. When Handscomb drove Aldridge high over mid-off for four to Gimblett’s Hill to reach 101 the applause was loud and extended. Over half of the crowd stood to applaud, a rarity for an opposition batter in 2024, and the Somerset team joined in as the Leicestershire team had for Goldsworthy. But, try as Handscomb and the new batter, Scriven, might, the gap between where the score was and where it needed to be widened. Aldridge, pitching full and bowling fast, was crucial to this, as were Vaughan on the Somerset Stand boundary and Umeed, patrolling the Caddick/Ondaatje boundary. Repeatedly they had reduced twos to ones and occasionally fours to twos.

Scriven ended the 47^th over by pulling Green over the Caddick Boundary. It was a fighting partnership with Handscomb, but the gap between actuality and need grew ever wider. Leicestershire needed 46 from the final three overs. Carried along by the sheer pace of the match, that felt possible, but a more rational look at the scoreboard suggested, miracles apart, otherwise. Somerset turned to Davey. Handscomb drove his first ball through the off side for four. His second stifled any prospect of a run. Applause. His third, Handscomb tried to drive over the Hildreth Stand boundary. There was a wait as the ball climbed. Then Umeed, enjoying a change of scene, took the catch. There was a split second of silence, a roar and then applause for Handscomb as he walked off, standing from the group of Leicestershire supporters. Leicestershire 293 for 8. Handscomb 111 from 86 balls. Forty-two runs needed from 15 balls. Two wickets standing.

It was too much of an ask. Six singles in the 49^th over, from Green, left 31 needed off the last. The ground still buzzed, the singles had been applauded by the Leicestershire supporters, but the atmosphere was beginning to have the feel of the backwash from a storm tide that had just passed its peak. Walker was bowled by Meredith, but it no longer mattered. Within a ball the players were walking off and the entire crowd was on its feet applauding one of the best white ball matches seen at Taunton for many years. As the players neared the Pavilion, the home crowd were applauding their team, the Leicestershire supporters theirs, and the Somerset team the crowd. On another day the result might have gone the other way. Picking between the teams would be difficult, but perhaps the difference was Somerset’s more measured start with the bat and the retention of wickets, or perhaps Rew’s 71 against Cox’s 49 when acceleration was needed, or perhaps Green’s three wickets before Leicestershire could properly get going, or perhaps Aldridge’s bowling at the crunch, or perhaps it was just Somerset’s day.

As to Goldsworthy or Hanscomb, who would want to judge between Goldsworthy’s 115 from 86 balls when Somerset needed to put the game out of reach, or Handscomb’s 111 from 86 balls when Leicestershire needed him to keep it within reach? In the end, there was the relief at Somerset reaching the final, but beyond that, it was just an utter joy to be at such a wonderful game of cricket between two so evenly matched sides, neither of which gave an inch, and both of which played the match in the very best of the spirit of cricket. For those too young to have experienced the Gillette and Benson and Hedges Cups and John Player League in their heyday but who were at this match, you may now have some idea of why those who were there in those days treasure their memories so highly.

Result. Somerset 334 for 4 (50 overs). L.P. Goldsworthy 115* (86 balls), J.E.K. Rew 71 (57), A.R.I. Umeed 57 (76). Leicestershire 311 for 9 (50 overs). P.S.P. Handscomb 111 (86), O.B. Cox, 49 (55), I.G. Holland 40 (56), B.G.F. Green 3-63 (6.30 runs per over). Somerset won by 23 runs.

Second semi-final result. Sophia Gardens. Warwickshire won the toss and elected to field. Glamorgan 247 for 9 (50 overs). Warwickshire 208 (46.1 overs). Glamorgan won by 39 runs.