BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – English County Somerset captalised on a limp display from Combined Campuses and Colleges to carve out a 42-run win and remain in contention for the semi-finals of the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship yesterday.
Choosing to bat first at Kensington Oval, Somerset were propelled to 165 for four by James Hildreth who stroked an unbeaten 69 and Nick Compton who got 44.
CCC batting proved brittle and they never came to grips with the required run rate losing wickets steadily, to meander to 117 for seven from their allotted overs.
The CCC bowling was quite hospitable to the visiting Englishmen and top scorer Hildreth filled his boots with a commanding 69 not out from 58 balls with six crisp fours.
He shared a second wicket partnership of 90 off 74 balls with Compton who hammered 44 off 37 balls with a pair of fours and sixes.
Peter Trego fell to the fifth ball of the innings for two when he spooned a catch to captain Romel Currency at cover point off fast bowler Gilford Moore, paving the way for Hildreth and Compton’s heroics.
The pair then played positively before Compton miscued a sweep off leg-spinner Nkrumah Bonner in the 13th over and Jos Buttler made just nine before skying pacer Kevin McClean to Miles Bascombe at point in the 17th. Arul Suppiah (4) holed out to William Perkins at deep mid-wicket but a cameo by Craig Meschede enabled Somerset to increase their scoring rate as he smashed a breezy unbeaten 26 from just 11 balls with one four and two sixes, in adding 43 runs off 20 runs for the fifth wicket.
CCC made a poor start to their run chase, losing wickets steadily until the innings went into terminal decline. Chadwick Walton cracked 24 not out from 21 balls with one four while Ryan Wiggins hit 21 from 25 balls to be the principal scorers for CCC, but the batting fell away badly. Bascombe looked dangerous when he smashed a four and a six in 11 from 12 balls but this threat was short-lived as he chopped a catch to third man off pacer Steven Kirby (3-26) in the third over.
New batsman Perkins never settled and eventually top-edged a hook to short third man off Kirby (7) off Kirby in the fifth over at 33 for two, to spark a slide where CCC lost six wickets for 65 runs off 72 balls.
Walton and McClean (4) added 25 in an unbroken eighth wicket stand as CCC accepted their fate.
Somerset finished their campaign on eight points while CCC could only muster four points from their complement of games.
