SOMERSET suffered one of the their heaviest defeats ever in List A cricket when they were beaten by Notts Outlaws by 10 wickets with 38 overs remaining in their opening match in the Royal London One Day Cup competition at Taunton on Thursday.

The Cidermen were outplayed in all departments much to the disappointment of the large crowd in excess of 3500 who were presentwho went home not only after witnessing a defeat but after watching only 48 of the 100 overs they would have expected to watch, some of whom will have paid £26 for the privilege.

Fielding what on paper appeared to be on of the strongest sides in the competition Somerset were in trouble from the start after being asked to bat first and slipped to 14 for four after losing three wickets in six balls.

 

This became 17 for five before 18 year old James Rew and skipper Ben Green added 45 for the sixth wicket, when the captain was out for 21.

Rew stayed at the crease to see up the Somerset 100 but after moving onto 48 he top edged Brett Hutton and was caught at dep backward point by Fateh Singh in the 30th over.

Siddle with 14 and Brooks who remained not out 10 scored a few late runs before the home side were all out for 119 in 35.4 overs, equaling the lowest score by Somerset against the Outlaws in List A cricket.

Zak Chappell claimed three for 35 while Liam Patterson-White took three 28.

When the Notts openers replied they were comp-lelty untroubled by the Somerset bowlers and they raced to to 124 without loss in 11.5 overs.

This will be a defeat that Somerset will want to quickly forget about and a result they can only improve upon. 

Afterwards the unfortunate Paul Tweddle who is in temporary charge of the team while Jason Kerr is off involved with The Hundred said: “This is definitly not the way that we wanted to start the competition. We weren’t able to weather that early storm and never got ourselves into the game although Ben Green and James Rew both batted well tried to do that, but we just kept losing wickets. 

“Yes Notts bowled well and kept us under pressure which we have to give credit for. The pitch did a little bit early on and it helped their seam bowlers.

Tweddle added: “This defeat is definitely disappointing because I have got a lot of belief in the side to go into the knock out stages of the competition and everyone in the changing room believes the same. There are some incredibly talented cricketers in our side and still a long way to go.”