Royal London One-Day Cup
South Group
Gloucestershire 39-0 v Somerset 211 - match abandoned

SOMERSET’S hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Royal London One Day-Cup are still alive, after the rain did them a favour at the Cooper Associates County Ground on Friday.

Despite Peter Trego’s fine 74, local rivals Gloucestershire would have been confident of chasing down 212 to win, only for heavy downpours to cause the match to be abandoned, meaning a point apiece for the two sides.

The hosts were once again without Craig Overton and Tim Groenewald, so the team remained unchanged from Tuesday’s defeat at Kent.

Having lost the toss and been put in to bat, Somerset lost Johann Myburgh (0) in the first over, as he was caught by Ian Cockbain.

Steve Davies (18) was just starting to get going when he fell to an intelligent catch on the boundary by Jack Taylor.

So, once again in this year’s competition, it was over to Trego and James Hildreth to repair the damage.

That they did, with a century partnership, as Trego looked in particularly good form, hitting nine 4s and three 6s in his 74, off 63 balls.

But his dismissal proved the turning point, as Benny Howell (2-24) struck twice in the 21st over.

First Trego was trapped lbw, and then Matt Renshaw (0) was clean bowled.

Hildreth followed soon after, for 35, as poor communication from Tom Banton brought about a run-out from Chris Dent.

The home side had staggered from 145-2 to 150-5, and although Lewis Gregory added 19 and Roelof van der Merwe 18, the wind had well and truly been knocked out of their sails.

Somerset were all out for 211 in the 41st over, as some sharp fielding and the efforts of Craig Miles (3-31) and Chris Liddle (2-47) accounted for the tail.

Gloucestershire made a confident start with the bat, Dent hitting 29* as they raced to 39-0 in six overs, but at that point the rain arrived and the players came off.

An hour of downpours followed, leading to significant puddles in the outfield, and the decision was made to call the game off just after 4.20pm.

Next up for Somerset is a must-win match at Hampshire (2pm start), their hosts currently top of the South Group standings.

Trego said afterwards: "We were pretty disappointed to be bowled out in 50 overs, but we've got away with it a couple of times.

"We don't feel like we've played that well in the tournament, but we still have a chance of qualifying, so we have to take that as a positive.

"We're all mindful of getting [batting] contributions, but no match-winning ones.

"We go into what is a massive game on Wednesday knowing that we have probably not played our best cricket yet."

Director of cricket Andy Hurry added: "We've looked to develop our early innings, and we did that today, but we didn't consolidate in the middle as we have in previous games.

"We got out of jail today, so we have a slight lifeline in the competition.

"I've been frustrated by our inconsistency; against Glamorgan and Middlesex I was excited by what I saw, but the other games were a concern."