Abell praises bowlers after One-day cup victory

Abell praises bowlers after One-day cup victory

Tom Abell. Picture courtesy of Somerset cricket on Youtube, with thanks

Captain Tom Abell hailed the impact of his bowlers, as Somerset won their first trophy in 14 years with a six-wicket win over Hampshire at Lord’s. 

Having lost the toss, the West Country outfit were asked to field first, but their attack were relentless in reducing the defending champions to 96-4 and then 180-8.

Hampshire did recover, eventually posting 244-8, but it was not enough as Somerset chased down their target inside 44 overs with both Tom Banton and James Hildreth scoring 69.

“It is always the case in one-day cricket that if you can get wickets early you can make it really difficult for the opposition,” he said.

“They have obviously been a really successful team in white-ball cricket, and they have a lot of power up top, so taking those early wickets slowed them down in the middle. 

“Full credit to our bowlers as we were able to create a lot of pressure. They asked a lot of questions and didn’t give the batsmen much to play at. It was a great effort to keep them to 240 on that wicket.”

Jamie Overton was one of the bowlers to impress, he finished with figures of 3-48, and was delighted to make an impression on the big stage at the Home of Cricket.

 “It’s quite a good feeling. I said to Abes (Tom Abell) yesterday that it is just another game of cricket, but it is obviously a lot more than that as there’s a trophy up for grabs,” Overton explained.

“I’m glad I could contribute, and it is a great feeling to win the man of the match and be part of a winning side.

“It’s the first trophy since 2005, so it’s an unbelievable feeling, we’ve worked so hard over the last couple of years. We’ve fallen short a few times, but it’s a brilliant group of lads and it is great to have to this moment.”

Meanwhile, losing captain Sam Northeast had no complaints about the result, despite the fact his team were missing key players in Liam Dawson and James Vince. 

“We needed a good start with the bat after deciding to play the extra bowler, and one of our top five or six batsmen was going to have to go on and make a big score for people to bat around,” he outlined.

“That just didn’t happen, they came out, bowled nicely and put us under pressure. We kept trying to rebuild as we wanted around 280 plus, but we came up short in the end.”

Both sides now turn their attention back to the County Championship with the pair currently occupying the top two positions in Division One.

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