Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final

Nottinghamshire 429-9 beat Somerset 405 by 24 runs

SOMERSET bowed out of the Royal London One-Day Cup at the quarter-final stage after a 24-run defeat in a remarkable match against Nottinghamshire which saw 834 runs scored over the course of a record-breaking day.

Chasing 430 to win, the hosts came flying out the traps and passed 400 for the first time in List A cricket but ultimately came up short despite good contributions from Dean Elgar (91) and Peter Trego (66).

Earlier, Brendan Taylor's sparkling 154 was the highlight of Nottinghamshire's imposing 429-9, which was made after Somerset won the toss and chose to field.

Michael Lumb set the tone for the visitors with the first ball of the day, hooking Craig Overton to fine leg for four, and he followed that up by smashing 20 from the very next over, bowled by Jamie Overton.

The early assault continued as Nottinghamshire brought up their 50 in just the fifth over, and it took the introduction of Roelof van der Merwe to bring the breakthrough as Lumb was caught in the covers by Jamie Overton for a 27-ball 47.

The in-form Samit Patel, who scored an unbeaten 257 in Nottinghamshire’s County Championship match in Bristol over the weekend, got going immediately and joined Riki Wessels who, having played second fiddle to Lumb early on, played some superb shots of his own to progress to a 47-ball half century.

Wessels eventually departed for 81, well caught by Adam Hose from the bowling of Tim Groenewald, but the carnage only continued upon the introduction of Brendan Taylor.

The Zimbabwean international began cautiously, rotating the strike with Patel as the fireworks were temporarily put on hold, but soon got into his stride and both players reached 50 with a minimum of fuss.

At this stage no total was off limits for the visitors, who were mixing invention with brute force as they sprayed some indifferent bowling to all parts of the County Ground, with Taylor particularly strong behind square as he combined reverse sweeps with unorthodox ramps.

Patel was dismissed in identical fashion to Wessels, caught at mid-off from the bowling of Groenewald, but Mullaney joined Taylor and was straight into the groove as he helped his well-set partner take the score past 300 with 12.5 overs still remaining.

Taylor moved to a deserved century in risky fashion three overs later as he called for a sharp single that would have led to his demise on 99 had there been a direct hit; the throw missed, though, and the batsman was able to celebrate a superb 69-ball hundred.

That was the cue for more fireworks and, having been dropped by Jamie Overton on 124, Taylor progressed to 154 (17x4, 5x6) before holing out off the bowling of Lewis Gregory.

Taylor's dismissal was the start of a collapse, as Nottinghamshire lost three wickets with the score on 410 and 5-15 overall before closing on a mammoth 429-9, an innings which included 15 sixes and became the highest List A score ever recorded at the County Ground.

Somerset knew they had to get off to a flyer in reply, and in Johann Myburgh they had just the man for the job.

The 36-year-old took 14 runs from the first over and scored boundaries from 10 of his first 16 deliveries, but his 19-ball 44 was brought to an end when Harry Gurney clean bowled him with a yorker.

When Steve Davies (4) and captain Jim Allenby (18) followed shortly afterwards Somerset were in deep trouble at 67-3, but Peter Trego joined the ever-reliable Dean Elgar to breathe fresh life into the run chase.

The pair added 154 for the fourth wicket, both bringing up half centuries as Elgar - who was dropped on 2 and 17 - continued his remarkable record of scoring at least 55 in every match in this year's one-day competition.

Trego delivered some trademark lusty blows but, in the same over he hit Patel for two particularly mighty sixes, he perished trying a third as the batsman picked out Michael Lumb on the deep mid-wicket boundary and departed for 66.

When Stuart Broad pegged back Elgar's leg stump shortly afterwards to send the South African on his way back for 91, Somerset were 246-5 and still a long way adrift.

Adam Hose survived a huge early lbw shout and played some nice shots on his way to 32 as he and Roelof van der Merwe (43) edged Somerset towards 300, but Hose was bowled round his legs attempting to sweep Patel as the home side's progress was halted again.

Somerset then got into a rhythm of looking like they had a chance of victory before losing a wicket at inopportune moments, as van der Merwe, Gregory (26) and Craig Overton (16) were all dismissed just as promising stands were developing.

Jamie Overton cleared the ropes three times on his way to 40 as he and Tim Groenewald combined for a valiant last stand and took Somerset past 400 for the first time in List A cricket, but a mix-up between the two saw Overton run out as the home side fell 24 runs short.

The 834 runs scored in a day is a new record total on this ground, but for the second time in as many days Somerset were left ruing a gut-wrechingly narrow defeat.

Speaking after the match, captain Jim Allenby said: "The batting was unbelievable, right from Myburgh at the top through to Dean Elgar and Peter Trego in the middle order - everyone chipped in.

"It was in the field we let ourselves down - I thought our last 10 overs were good with the ball but I was disappointed with the rest.

"We bowled too short early on and we were sloppy in the field. You can get away with that against weaker sides but not against this Notts outfit.

"There was a bit of a hangover from yesterday - in fact, I was surprised how much so - but of course they are going to be deflated having come so close after four tough days.

"That showed in the first hour, which wasn't us at all.

"I'm happy with 85% of our campaign - we had two off days, and unfortunately one of them was today.

"It bodes well for next year, whoever is in charge."