Somerset finish off Auckland to see them out of CLT20

Somerset saw out Auckland in a tense finish to get them closer to qualifying for the CLT20 group stages. Steve Snell was the man of the match with a superb cameo to get him amongst the long list of match heroes in the world stage with his inning of 34 from a blistering 24 balls. 
Auckland batted at the same kind of pitch played by Leceistershire and T&T which suited well to the Somerset bowlers as they got 3 early wickets for 14 runs until Vincent (47 not out) and Hopkins (22) got Auckland to push to 125-7 with the help of some lower order batsmen. Alfonso Thomas and Peter Trego both picked up 2 wickets each starring with the pace and spin.


Somerset had a bit of shaky start when Jones was out for 16 from a firing 9 balls. Trego and van der Merwe provided with some anchor to launch them to 54-3 in 9 overs going at a steady run rate before a middle order collapse happened. With Compton and Suppiah out in 10 to bring Somerset to 64-5, panic started to kick in. Snell got to gear after but Michael Bates was clawing Auckland back in with his pinpoint yorkers in the final over, breaking up the Hildreth-Snell partnership to leave Alfonso Thomas needing 1 run to win with Snell in the non-strikers end. Thomas got the run right in the end to eliminate Auckland meaning that no New Zealand T20 team has got past the group stages of the competition.

Scorecard for the match