Matches (13)
IPL (3)
Women's Tri-Series (SL) (1)
HKG T20 (1)
WCL 2 (1)
County DIV1 (3)
County DIV2 (4)
RESULT
South Group (D/N), Taunton, July 18, 2024, Vitality Blast
158/9
(17.4/20 ov, T:159) 162/4

Somerset won by 6 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)

Report

Green leaves Somerset eyeing home quarter after leapfrogging Sussex

Thomas, Abell clinch knockout spot with one match to spare after allrounder takes four

Ben Green roars in celebration of a wicket, Somerset vs Surrey, Vitality Blast semi-final, Edgbaston, July 15, 2023

Ben Green took four wickets in three overs  •  Getty Images

Somerset 162 for 4 (Abell 47*, Thomas 42) beat Sussex 158 for 9 (Ward 39, Green 4-17)
Ben Green claimed four wickets as holders Somerset leapfrogged Sussex Sharks into second place in the Vitality Blast South Group with a six-wicket victory at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.
Sussex could post only 158 for 9 after losing the toss, Harrison Ward top-scoring with a rapid 39 and medium-pacer Green finishing with 4 for 17 from three overs.
Somerset chased their target down with 2.2 overs to spare, George Thomas blasting 42, with seven fours, Tom Abell making 47 not out and Sean Dickson adding 28. Tymal Mills was the most successful Sharks bowler with 2 for 28.
The result ensured Somerset of a quarter-final place and made them favourites to secure a home tie with one group game left to play.
The batting highlights of the Sharks' six-over powerplay were Daniel Hughes' three successive fours in the third over, bowled by Craig Overton, and the first six of the match struck by Ward off Jake Ball in the fifth over.
Hughes had fallen earlier in that over, miscuing a pull shot to mid-on and at the end of the powerplay Sussex were 49 for 1. That became 66 for 1 when Ward greeted the introduction of Jack Leach with a four and six off his first two deliveries.
But the England left-arm spinner quickly struck back by having the opener caught sweeping after facing 23 balls, and that was as good as it got for the visitors as Somerset turned the screw in the middle overs.
Green struck twice in his first over, removing Tom Clark and John Simpson to catches in the deep, including a diving effort from Thomas, and at the halfway point in their innings the Sharks were struggling on 71 for 4.
Tom Alsop was dropped by Thomas off the first ball of the 13th over, sent down by Green, but perished to the next delivery as Overton pouched a comfortable catch at mid-on off a full toss.
James Coles, who hit a brisk 26, and Nathan McAndrew (20) paid the penalty for testing Dickson's arm from the boundary edge and were both run out attempting to turn one run into two, while Green claimed his fourth wicket when the same fielder held a simple catch off McAndrew.
The Sussex total never looked likely to be enough. So it proved, as Tom Banton and Thomas got Somerset off to a flying start with a stand of 34 in four overs, ended when Banton clipped a catch to deep square off Mills' first ball of the game.
At the end of the powerplay the hosts were 56 for 1, with Thomas and Tom Kohler-Cadmore going well. They took the score to 70 in the eighth over when Thomas was caught at long-on off Danny Lamb, having faced 30 balls and enhanced his growing reputation as replacement for the injured Will Smeed.
Abell survived a caught and bowled chance to Mills, but the pace bowler struck later in the tenth over as Kohler-Cadmore, on 20, lofted a catch to deep cover. It mattered little as Abell and Dickson both cleared the ropes and Dickson ended any doubt about the result with three successive boundaries off McAndrew at the start of the 13th over.
With ten runs needed, Dickson was run out by Clark's direct hit from the boundary, but he had already done his job.

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Somerset Innings
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Vitality Blast

North Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
BEARS14104201.308
NOR148418-0.151
LAN1474171.109
DUR147615-0.325
LEI146614-0.119
DER1467130.112
YOR146713-0.035
WOR144108-0.192
NOT14398-1.699
South Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
SUR1493200.777
SUS1495180.607
SOM1485170.497
GLO1476150.503
ESS1476150.201
GLA146713-0.592
HAM144711-0.556
MID14389-1.487
KEN144108-0.486