v. Somerset (A) Tue 22 May 2018 RLODC

My XI would be Wells, Wright, Finch, Brown (c, +), Evans, Burgess, Wiese, Robinson, Briggs, Sharma and Garton.

A stout effort from the Sussex batters. 341-7 with Wright getting a century. The commentators reckon Sussex are "just" in the driving
seat given the Taunton pitch is excellent to bat on and the fact that Somerset recently have been scoring runs for fun (405 and 372
in the RLC at this ground).

Is 341 enough?

As philh points out, this match can be watched live at:

www.somersetcountycc.co.uk/match-centre/

I find it a little embarrassing that most county grounds who have live-streaming are offering this
as a free service, yet only Sussex Members get ours for free and all others have to pay a sum (is that
right?)

I’m actually at the game. Hopefully, enjoying a celebration cider or two later.

Hildreth out to Briggs. It's looking promising. Somerset need 102 to win off 10.5 overs.

edit: Now Overton out two balls later. It's looking very promising.

Last 10 overs. Somerset require 9.2 runs per over to win.

edit: The fat Lady is clearing her throat!! 

Wins don't come much better than that. Somerset had started strongly in the RLODC with comfortable wins over Surrey and Glamorgan. Sussex batted with purpose from the beginning and it was disappointing when Luke Wells played on trying to pull to leg. Luke Wright looked in form from the beginning. A Somerset supporter sitting behind me said that he looked good for a hundred when he only had about 15 on the board; I disagreed and was thankfully proved wrong. He batted beautifully. Finch looked comfortable until he got what looked like a harsh LBW. Brown had a rare failure for this season, but Evans and Wright looked comfortable as we took the 'easy mid-term runs' with regular singles to long on and long off and the odd four. When Wright went the run rate dropped as Evans tried to steady the ship until Wiese and Burgess put on a sparkling 100 partnership, each gaining 50s, as we piled on the runs in the closing overs. It was a mixture of cultured shots, slogs and nicking ones and twos all around the ground.

Two early wickets fell to stop Somerset in their tracks, although three good catching chances went begging. If we looked clumsy at catching, our ground fielding was keen and very sharp. After Robinson's two valuable early wickets, the game was starting to tip in Somerset's favour as they were matching the asking rate and scoring steadily - Hildreth and Renshaw showed what class batsmen they are with a stand of just under 100 for the fifth wicket. Then, Wiese got Renshaw to nick one and the game swung back to Sussex as Briggs dismissed Hildreth and with Sharma ran through the lower order despite one or two lofty blows.

A really good team performance with the glitch being our catching, but, hey, the enthusiasm out there was for all to see. Indeed, Somerset supporters near me couldn't understand why we are not in Division One of the Championship.