Somerset into Trophy final after besting Worcestershire
Somerset are back at Lord’s for the second successive summer after defeating Worcestershire by 60 runs at New Road to seal a spot in the Bob Willis Trophy final.
The Royal London One-Day Cup holders set the home side a 245 target and dismissed them for 184 mid-way through the afternoon session.
Lewis Gregory and Josh Davey with three wickets apiece were the main architects of Worcestershire’s downfall, but it was another impressive team performance and put the icing on a hugely successful Trophy campaign.
Somerset won four of their five matches and were only denied almost certain victory by the rain in the other match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Their tally of 97 points is comfortably the highest by any county.
Worcestershire can take great heart from their performances in the competition after two dismal seasons of red ball cricket in which they were relegated from Division One of the County Championship and then finished ninth in Division Two.
They won two and drew the other two in their opening four games and to be in contention themselves for a Lord’s final right to the final day of the group stages represents healthy progression in that format of the game.
They also provided the leading run-scorer in the competition in Jake Libby with 498 runs.
Worcestershire head coach Alex Gidman said: “If we look at the whole competition, once the emotion has gone out of today, I think we can look back and say we’ve made significant strides.”
