Trego helps keep Somerset alive

Peter Trego lit up Somerset's 50-run win over Hampshire with a big-hitting innings of 61 and then took two top-order wickets when the home side responded.

Trego's flamboyant battering of the Hampshire attack, which included nine fours and three sixes, overshadowed a valiant attempt by Hampshire opener James Vince to reverse the outcome.

Vince was last out after making 95 in an increasingly hopeless cause as Somerset coasted to their fifth Clydesdale Bank 40 Group B victory to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the later stages of the competition.

Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams chose to field first and must have wondered if he had made the right decision as Trego took apart the bowling in a whirlwind of boundaries.

Marcus Trescothick lost his wicket in the second over but then Trego was joined by Chris Jones in a partnership of 73 for the second wicket in only seven overs. Trego's assault lasted only 31 balls before he hoisted spinner Danny Briggs into the deep, where Chris Wood held the catch.

Somerset's run blast halted after Trego's departure and the rest of the innings was sedate by comparison with Briggs taking two wickets for 39 runs and Sean Ervine applying the brakes with figures of 3 for 35.

Ervine bowled James Hildreth and then removed the potentially dangerous Arul Suppiah and Abdur Rehman. But Somerset were revived by Jos Buttler, who made 51 off 59 balls, and Gemaal Hussain who hit two sixes in his brief innings of 18 not out.

When Hampshire replied they again found Trego in inspired form, having Adams caught at slip by Trescothick in his second over and finding a gap in Neil McKenzie's defences in his third.

With Rehman having Simon Katich caught behind without scoring, Hampshire were 15 for three and then 49 for 4 when Ervine was bowled by Steve Kirby. Then Vince was joined by Liam Dawson in a stand of 73 for the fifth wicket in 12 overs to begin the process of a Hampshire recovery.

Even after Dawson had gone at 122, Michael Bates helped Vince add another 40 for the sixth - but Hampshire were always struggling to match the required run rate. Kirby came back to bowl Bates and later did the same to Briggs, marooning Vince short of his century.

Vince lifted Hussain for six and added two more runs to take his score to 95 but in the same over was leg before wicket from the last ball of the 36th to confirm Somerset's superiority.