FRIENDS PROVIDENT t20 QUARTER-FINAL, Taunton:
Somerset 115-3 (17 ovs) beat Northants 112-6 (20 ovs) by seven wickets
Match scorecard

Kieswetter hit five boundaries in his 28-ball knock

Somerset cruised to a seven-wicket victory over Northants at Taunton to reach Twenty20 finals day in August.

Northants sparked their own downfall with two run outs inside the first two overs, and the visitors then lost three wickets in 12 balls to slump to 43-5.

Stephen Peters hit 40 off 34 balls as Northants recovered to post 112-6.

Craig Kieswetter (33) and Peter Trego (30) gave Somerset a solid start in reply and James Hildreth's unbeaten 25 secured victory with 18 balls to spare.

Somerset will face Nottinghamshire, who beat Sussex on Monday, for a place in the final. Essex play Hampshire in the other semi-final.

Northants' performance was summed up as early as the second delivery of the innings, as Chaminda Vaas was run out without facing a ball attempting a third.

Alex Wakely followed nine balls later as he was run out by Mark Turner, who had just dropped the same man at mid-off.

606: DEBATE Northants have only themselves to blame - too few runs and two stupid run outs JohnSheridan

Just 26 runs came off the powerplay overs and, despite Rob White's run-a-ball 26, Northants were 46-5 at the halfway point, as Arul Suppiah (1-14) and Murali Kartik (1-15) went at less than four an over.

Peters led the visitors to three figures with a four and a six in his 34-ball knock, assisted by 14 from captain Andrew Hall and an unbeaten 14 by David Willey.

In reply, Somerset lost Marcus Trescothick for nine in the third over, who took his FP t20 season's tally to 493 runs.

But the home side were given a solid start in their run-chase with Kieswetter's 33 off 28 balls, which included four fours and one six.

Trego added 30 in 27 balls with two sixes to take Somerset close, before becoming the second wicket of the match for James Middlebrook (2-30).

Hildreth and an unbeaten 15 from Zander de Bruyn saw Somerset to their victory target and a place in the Twenty20 semis for the third time.

Northants batsman Alex Wakely:

"We won the toss which we all thought was the way to go here.

"And then losing two wickets early on - especially like that - is criminal, really.

"In Twenty20 you need a good start otherwise, as we saw, it puts you behind."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version