Glamorgan v Somerset, Vitality Blast South Group, Cardiff, July 16 2021 Somerset 181-5 (Conway 70*, Lammonby 34) beat Glamorgan 107 (Goldsworthy 3-14, van der Merwe 3-20) by 74 runs
This was a performance of a team capable of winning the T20 this season. On a dreadfully slow Sophia Gardens pitch Devon Conway’s ability to pace the whole innings, Tom Lammonby’s pugnacious 20 ball 34 (believe me the Tom L of last year is slowly but surely coming back) and a fine all round bowling performance from the trio of slow left-armers was far too much for a woeful Glamorgan.
A sentiment being expressed on social media last evening was that it was nice to be on the right end of a batting collapse (those memories of Chelmsford and Southampton won’t fade quickly) but this was different. This was a collapse induced by bowling and out-cricket that squeezed the life out of the opposition.
But. And there is always a but with Somerset cricket. This win was set up by Conway who day by day during this stibnite with Somerset is moving up the list of my all-time favourite Somerset cricketers. I can honestly say without exaggeration of decency bias he is already very near the top. His calmness, shot selection and game management are all things of beauty but most pleasant of all is the way he scores big in virtually every innings without the need to eschew proper cricket shots. That puts him in a pretty small minority in modern cricket.
So in the same week that Somerset clinched a place in Division One of the Championship they secured a quarter-final place in the blast. With Conway in the side they have no-one to fear. With a win tomorrow against the old enemy a home quarter final can be secured, hopefully in front of a restriction-free full house.
The game against Gloucestershire will mark a big dividing line ion the season. The cream of the county’s playing staff will leave us for a month but within a week we will be starting our defence of the Royal London One Day Cup. It won’t surprise many of you to know that this site will be focussing solely on that competition beginning our coverage on Monday with a look back to that glorious Saturday in May 2019. Hopefully there will be some live cricket and some live blogging along the way as well.
But in closing I’d like to start a theme that will run throughout Somerset’s campaign and that is to get as many people to support the club home and away through the competition. This will be a powerful message to the ECB and we can all play a part. If you haven’t got your tickets yet to watch the exciting youngsters alongside some more familiar faces in the Somerset side here’s a link to where you can buy them. https://somer.st/RLCex
