Tom Lammonby’s welcome return to form continued, just as Somerset really needed it (and some). After 34 off 20 in Cardiff, tonight he came in with Somerset really struggling at 73-4 four balls in to the 13th.
Lammonby reached 50 from 22 balls as Dan Worrall returned for the 18th, having bowled three powerplay overs for just 17. He was then taken for the same score off just two legitimate balls. No ball scooped for 6, then the free hit scooped for 4 then a full legal delivery smacked over mid wicket for 6.
But he did not stop there, completely transforming the home side’s otherwise very underwhelming first innings. 90 off 36 balls, when only one other batsman scored at more than a 100 strike rate all innings (Will Smeed’s 39 off 35 before running himself out).
Miles Hammond and Benny Howell came out needing 184 to beat Craig Overton’s men and seal that coveted home quarter-final.
The stand-in skipper got two early breakthroughs, both caught in the ring at mid wicket, to earn powerplay figures of 2-10 including a wicket maiden in his third. Gloucestershire’s 37/2 just ahead of Somerset’s powerplay score: 32/2.
Ben Green bowled the seventh and saw a Glenn Phillips skier dropped by Smeed running in from deep square leg. Fortunately for Somerset, less than three overs later, Overton caught a slightly less high top edge-same bowler, same batter out for 29, 74-3.
12.3 overs (73-4) in the first innings was when Lammonby entered the fray. In the second innings it was the exact moment the sun first dropped behind the River Stand, the Glosters were 96-3, though behind, the 88 required off 7.3 looked an uphill/Tom Lammonby sized task.
Once Overton returned for a miserly fourth in the 15th to finish with 2-18 with 13 dots, 62 were required off the final five. Ian Cockbain did reach 50 off 35 balls, but not before Green bowled Jack Taylor for 26.
Jack Brooks then bowled Ryan Higgins for one and Cockbain’s lone stand was too little too late – he finished with 72 off 46 balls, caught at deep extra cover in the final over.
Somerset won by 23 runs.