Ravi Bopara hit a magnificent unbeaten century as Essex beat Somerset by eight wickets in the C&G Trophy at Taunton.

The England A batsman made 101 not out off 97 balls, with three sixes and 12 fours, as the visitors reached 189-2 with 17 and a half overs to spare.

Matthew Wood gave Somerset a flying start earlier in the day with nine fours in his 55 off 40 deliveries.

But his efforts were squandered and they were all out for 188 in the 40th over as James Middlebrook took 4-27.

"It was a shocking performance and I will be speaking to the players individually this week about their season so far.

"We have either been excellent or very poor and we have to become more consistent," Director of Cricket Brian Rose told the Somerset website.

Their last eight wickets went down for only 47 runs after Middlebrook had Arul Suppiah caught behind for 37 to end a stand of 57 with Cameron White.

White soon followed for 35, caught by Middlebrook off Grant Flower, and the Essex spinners made short work of the middle and lower order, helped by the needless run outs of James Hildreth and Keith Parsons.

Flower was quickly despatched for six by Andy Caddick as Essex began their reply, but skipper Ronnie Irani shared a partnership of 106 with Bopara before he lofted White to deep mid-wicket and was caught for 46.

Left-armer Charl Willoughby completed 10 tidy overs for figures of 0-27 but the Somerset spin bowlers came in for rough treatment from Bopara as he and Andy Flower (18 not out) finished things off for Essex, the winning run coming courtesy of a Gareth Andrew no-ball.

The only disappointment for Essex was the abortive return of paceman Darren Gough, who only managed three overs with the new ball at the start of the game before having to leave the field with a recurrence of a hamstring problem.