Roy and Finch power Surrey to comprehensive victory. 29th July 2018
27th JULY 2018
SURREY vs SOMERSET
Vitality Blast T20 Friday 27th July 2018
Peter Moore at The Kia Oval
SOMERSET SURREY
99-6 (10) 102-1 (6.4)
Surrey won by 9 wickets
Openers Aaron Finch and Jason Roy hurried Surrey to a comprehensive nine wicket victory against Somerset in the Vitality Blast on Friday.
The pair smashed 69 runs in just 3.5 overs after Somerset struggled in their ten overs, and posted a below par 99-6.
After a delayed start of almost two hours, play started at 8.15 with the match reduced to ten overs per side. The hosts won the toss and elected to put Somerset in to bat.
The visitors put on twenty two runs for the opening wicket when Tom Curran struck twice in four deliveries when he had Steve Davies(11) LBW and Peter Trego edging behind to Ben Foakes, without scoring. Rikki Clarke then took a return catch to remove Johann Myburgh(16) to leave the visitors 30-3. Three runs later it was the turn of Gareth Batty to get in on the act. James Hildreth(1) tried a horrible reverse sweep and was trapped lbw as the visitors struggled to reach 33-4 after 5 overs.
Clarke returned and had Corey Anderson(8) edging behind as the visitors continued to struggle. Matt Pillans came into the attack and was rewarded with his fourth delivery when Roelof van der Merwe(9) lofted the ball straight to Jason Roy at mid on. With rain falling and steadily getting heavier, the umpires took the players off the field after 8.3 overs had been bowled with Somerset 73-6. After a brief stoppage of just four minutes play resumed with the final nine balls to be bowled. Somerset were thankful to Lewis Gregory who made an unbeaten half century of just 23 balls, as the visitors reached 99 for 6 in their allotted ten overs.
Openers Jason Roy and Aaron Finch took 20 of Jerome Taylor’s first over, before the pair added a further 18 runs of Gregory’s opening over. Finch,however had a life when he had reached 22 after being put down by Max Waller. After the powerplay in the third over the pair had put on 56 runs, well over half way towards their target, as the home side were cruising to victory. Roy(28), holed out in the deep of spinner Van der Merwe with 69 on the board in just the fourth over.
But it was left to Nic Maddinson(15*) along with Finch(43*) to see the hosts past their target with 20 deliveries to spare. Finch launching Taylor over the boundary for a six to win the match for Surrey with almost four overs remaining. Somerset’s bowlers never looked threatening enough to try and contain a rampant Surrey batting line up. The visitors were not helped by some indiscipline bowling, which included 14 wides, as the hosts cantered to their modest victory target.
