Worcestershire see off Somerset in One-Day Cup semis

Worcester, Metro Bank One-Day Cup semi-final

Worcestershire 275-9 (50 overs): Lategan 78 (82), D’Oliveira 45 (52), Green 4-52

Somerset 141 (29.2 overs): J Rew 47 (55), Shahzad 4-36, Brookes 3-16

Somerset was defeated by Worcestershire using the DLS method.

With a 131-run victory over Somerset at New Road, Worcestershire won the One-Day Cup final.

With Jack Leach’s excellent 2-28 from 10 overs at its core and Ben Green also claiming 4-52, the home side posted a respectable 275-9 with Daniel Lategan scoring a List A-best 78 off 82 balls against a disciplined Somerset attack.

On a strong pitch, Somerset’s top order imploded against Khurram Shahzad (4-36). The target looked around par.

Before the rain, the visitors were more than 100 runs adrift of the DLS score, falling to 108-7 from 23.4 overs.

As openers Lategan and Brett D’Oliveira (45) added 85 in 15 overs, Somerset chose to bowl but were waited for their first breakthrough.

However, the bowlers were unfavorable, and wickets started to fall as risks were taken in search of speed.

Jake Libby skied Aldridge to mid-off, while D’Oliveira skied Kasey Aldridge to mid-off and Kashif Ali was spotted by Finley Hill with the greatest nonchalance off Green.

Lategan, 19, bowled Rob Jones and posted a polished maiden fifty before falling lbw, reverse-sweeping Leach.

Worcestershire needed some late-order contributions after Ethan Brookes was lbw and swept Tom Lammonby, and they received them from Matthew Waite (24 off 26), Tom Taylor, and Henry Cullen (32 off 30), respectively, before he hit three sixes in an unbeaten 22 off 10 balls.

In his final three balls, Pakistan international Shahzad made two wide plays, one of which went for four.

However, Thomas Rew edged over to slip and Archie Vaughan was brilliantly caught by Ben Allison at midwicket and Lammonby and Lewis Goldsworthy were beaten for pace when attempting to pull catches.

Somerset’s plight was made worse by Worcestershire’s other seamers. Joshua Thomas was quickly caught by Lategan on the long leg boundary, and Ben Allison dissipated Green and Hill at mid-off.

Before heavy rain hit Somerset in dire straits, Green fell to the last ball.

Aldridge, caught behind, and Leach, slammed off Brookes, quickly lost them and needed another 165 from 14.2 overs to reach a revised target.

James Rew and Jake Ball’s final duo, James Rew and Jake Ball, needed 137 runs from 10 overs, but they only managed five before Rew lifted Brookes (3-16) to long off, causing long, loud cheers from the home fans.

Dan Lategan, a Worcestershire batter:

I couldn’t be happier because that was amazing. We had some movement at the beginning, which is what we know New Road always does, but we made it work really well.

I put my best foot forward and was disappointed to be out, but the guys in the order eventually put us up to a high score.

It was an incredible spell just before the rain started, when we kept taking wickets, and we would have liked closer to 300, but we were very confident, and that showed in the powerplay.

“Sorry, we bat deep, but after every wicket, we said, “We know there is more talent coming in, so let’s keep our energy and take wickets.”

Coach of the Somerset One Day Cup, Paul Tweddle:

“We have been outplayed,” the player said. “We started out fairly well with the ball, but fair play to them, they came at us hard and made some really good shots in those first ten overs.”

When Jack Leach did a great job and the other guys dragged us back into the game, “Then we well back into the game in the period from 10n to 40 overs,” we found ourselves halfway there with the feeling that we could hit the target or something similar.

“But then we never really managed to hold onto the game when we batted; instead, we struggled to adapt to the conditions and found it challenging on that wicket. Occasionally, you lose wickets, making things harder and harder.”