Somerset suffer crushing defeat
Bravo chipped in with four wickets
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By Tom Powell. |  |
Monday, 12, Oct 2009 02:59
By Ash Gorsi.
Somerset's hopes of reaching the next round of the Twenty20 Champions League suffered a huge blow after the English side crumbled to a heavy defeat against Trinidad & Tobago in Bangalore.
Being set 151 to win, the Somerset chase never looked likely after a top-order batting collapse and they fell 45 runs short at 106 all out with Zander de Bruyn unbeaten on 43.
West Indies star Dwayne Bravo was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-23, and was given good support by spinners Dave Mohammed and Sherwin Ganga, who applied a stranglehold to the Somerset batsmen with two wickets apiece.
Justin Langer's men will now nervously await the outcome of the Deccan Chargers and Trinidad & Tobago match tomorrow to see if they progress.
T&T openers Lendl Simmons and Wayne Perkins certainly wasted no time and got the side off to a flyer, punishing anything short and wide with an array of flamboyant strokes particularly off the back foot.
However the opening pair fell in successive overs trying to hit one too many shots. Darren Bravo, the younger brother of Dwayne, facing his first delivery launched Ben Phillips straight back over his head for six, but his stay was short lived as Charles Willoughby snaffled a neat caught-and-bowled chance.
After a promising start in which 59 runs were scored in the first six overs, four wickets fell in the space of ten balls to put the brakes on the Trinidad innings.
Somerset's young leg spinner Max Waller got the big scalp of all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who was dismissed first ball attempting an extravagant shot to backward point.
The ploy of spin from both ends stifled the run rate and with wickets falling, the Trinidad batsmen were never able to capitalise in the middle overs.
A late flurry of runs - including a run-a-ball 39 from wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin - enabled his side to reach 150-9.
After the short interval, Bravo took the new ball and got the early breakthrough - dismissing dangerman Marcus Trescothick for just three.
Some disciplined bowling by Bravo proved to be the undoing of Craig Kieswetter, who tried to smash his way out of trouble only to find the hands of brother Darren.
Captain Langer then gave his wicket away caught at square leg sweeping, off spinner Sherwin Ganga. And thereafter it was the Trinidad spinners that caused bulk of the damage, with just 44 runs coming off the first ten. With the run rate climbing, the Somerset batsmen had no answers.
Arul Suppiah started the rot, being bowled around his legs for six. Big-hitter Peter Trego skied a shot straight in the air and when James Hildreth was run out attempting a mindless single it was all but over.
An abysmal ending was complete when Bruyn ran out of partners and the final batsman was dismissed off the last ball with the required victory total now well out of sight.