Metro 50 Semi - v Worcestershire at their gaff
By Grockle
August 31 2025
A quickfire semi after two games already this week. After the win over Gloucestershire on Thursday the side should go into this one with confidence though it will be a greater challenge one would imagine. Jack Leach stays in the side so there is no place for a fit (?) Alfie Ogborne who was named in the squad. We go with the same side who were on the field on Thursday and last Sunday
Metro 50 Semi Final v Worcestershire @ New Road Sunday 31 August 2025
The same line-up as the last two games face the 'Rapids' in this semi final. Somerset have won the toss and will bowl first.
The side is;
Vaughan, Lammonby, Goldsworthy, Rew J (c and wk), Rew T, Thomas, Hill, Green, Aldridge, Leach, Ball
The spin of Leach is preferred to the introduction of another seamer (Ogborne or all rounder Roberts). Stay with the side who have won in the very recent past is probably a good plan.
Lategan and captain D'Oliveira face Ball and Green on a windy and moving towards overcast Worcester wicket. The first balll from Jake goes for four but the rest is solid. The second over goes for a maiden and Somerset are off and running with 4 for 0 after 2. In the next two overs however, both bats find their 'six' game and put the ball into the crowd off both bowlers.
The weather is predicted to be variable and it is windy, which might keep the showers away. If we get a full day without interruptions, we will have done very well.
As we move to 5 overs, the Worcester bats are seeming to be a bit nervous, looking to swish at balls they ought to leave, connecting sometimes and being damn lucky at others. They reach 20 for 0 after the first 5 with D'Oliveira moving on to 13 and Lategan has 7. Ben has gone for 8 and Jake has given away 12, these have mostly come in boundaries - not all of them well executed.
As the 9th comes up against and aggressive Worcester opening pair, the 50 arrives with D'Oliveira on 33 from 36 and lategan on 9 from 17. It's a good start but the ball is doing something. For the 10th we see Aldridge for the first time and Lategan takes him for 2 boundaries and a quick single to move the score to 59 at 10 at the end of the first 'Powerplay'. Lammonby replaces Ball for the 11th. The commentators are saying that a par score here is about 275.
He goes for 2 off his first but Kasey is not so lucky and has gone for 24 from his first 3. We will probably see Jack coming on to create some control as the home side move to 82 for no loss from 14. However, for now we continue with Aldridge and he gets the breakthrough when he gets D'Oliveira via a really good catch from Thomas Rew at deep extra cover for 45 (82 balls 6 fours and a six) at 85 for 1 in the 16th.
Kashif Ali is the next man in and he gets rapped on the pads first ball but survives. It seems to have given Kasey some impetus as he flies in for the rest of the over and produces his best onw going for only 1 run.
Jack replaces Tom (13 from his first 4) for the 19th with the opposition just 2 runs from 100. Lategan is also a boundary away from a personal 50 so Worcestershire are moving along. The spinner keeps them under 2 figures from his first - a good one.
The 20th arrives and with Kasey having gone for 35 from his 5 with the one wicket, Ben Green returns but cannot stop Worcester going past 100 from 113 balls. Kashif has started slowly with only 5 from his 13 while Lategan has taken 50 balls to reach his 46. 20 overs sees the home side on 103 for 1 and Somerset hope for the 'press' from Leach and Green curbing the scoring rate in the next 10 or so overs. Worcestershire do have wickets in hand though.
Lategan goes to 50 with a single from 53 balls with 7 fours and a six as we start the 3rd of the 5 phases of this innings. Green was close to bowling him first ball so... Jack continues with the 21st and is getting some turn. He goes for 3 and his bowling partner has gone for 22 in his 5. 106 for 1 after 21 as the rain has stayed away but is quite obviously in the vicinity. Kashif tries to go big and get started off Green but he is straight into the hands of Fin Hill a confident fielder on the boundary and he is on his way for 6 from 20 at 107. In comes Jake Libby.
Lammonby switches ends and replaces Green so we can save him for the end of the innings. The wind on the effects mic is very strong and there is rain in the air ir seems. However, the game continues as we move into the 25th and the halfway stage. People are starting to put waterproofs on and put umbrellas up so we may not be long for the middle. There is a bit of 'spitting' but the comments seem to suggest that it isn't a lot.
The halfway mark is reached with the score on 122 for 2 with Libby slowly moving to 6 from 12 while Lategan has moved on to 60 from 66. Jack goes to 5 overs none for 9 and he is pushing the pressure up as the Rapids have to start looking at putting runs on at the other end. Howver, Lammonby has also bowled 6 for 24 so it is not easy for the bats at the moment. They have onklky hit 2 boundaries from the last 10/12 overs. It needs to speed up if a competitive total is to be put in place.
In the 29th, Llibby looks to start moving it as he sends the spinner to the boundary for his first one in this innings. Lategan brings out the reverse but straight to the fielder. So 5 in the over is an improvement but not by much as we move into the 30th over. Aldridge returns for that over with the need to tighten up and keep the 'press' on. He nearly gets Libby but he is dropped by Ben Green - an easy one. However, Libby then inexplicabely skies the next one striaght up and then into the hands of Thomas Rew to go for 17 from 31 at 140 for 3. 103 for 1 becomes 140 for 3 as Rob Jones arrives and moves it to 142 with 20 overs left. Adding 39 from 10 overs is good from the visitors.
Doubling the score with wickets in hand means Worcestershire are looking at 280ish. Jack continues and finishes his 7th with 19 against his name and 147 on the board. Aldridge continues, the most expensive bowler but he does have 2 of the 3 wickets. They go past 150 with a boundary to move to 152. The last 50 took 13 overs though. Kasey ends his 7th as the rain returns. The last ball is straight sixed by Lategan taking them to 158 and Kasey on to 50 for 2.
Jones is looking to push the scoring on, going up the wicket to the spinner but not piercing the field. Lategan has also realised that he has to move. He goes for the reverse sweep but the umpire decides that he has not go out of the way of the one he misses and he goes for 78 from 81 (his highest score) with 10 fours and 2 sixes. 161 for 4 with Jack getting reward for his bowling. He moves to 1 for 22 as Brookes walks out to face. He is off his duck with a second ball sweep for four. The over ends at 165 for 4. With Jack 8 overs 1 for 26.
Jake comes back at the other end to the "Digless" for the 34th with 28 coming from his first 5. 169 for 4 with a run rate of 5 as they look to bowl Leach out with him taking his 9th with the 35th. Jones looks to sweep and Jack nearly bowls him. Rew looks up to the skies so it was close. The next one is closer and Jones is bowled trying for the same shot. He goes for 13 from 20 at 171 for 5 with Brookes on a run a ball 5. Cullen comes out with 15 overs left to face Ball as Jack has 1 left with 2 for 29 to his name having once more done his job and more.
Jake keeps it below 6 (4) as our spinner then bowls out in the 37th. He finishes with a maiden and goes for 2 for 28 - very very good control. Green returns for the 38th and then suprisingly he is followed by the introduction of Lewis into the attack. Hmmm interesting decision. A six off the last from Brookes spoils the over as he goes for 11 to move the score to 190 for 5. Getting to 200 with 10 to go is a psychological point for the batting side and maybe bringing on another lefty spinner was a mistake. Anyway, Green continues with the 40th. A very difficult catch is almost caught by Hill on the boundary. he stops the four making a great effort to try and make it a catch. 196 for 5 with 10 to go as the charge starts to get up some pace during the last 'Powerplay'.
Lammonby will come back on with 3 to go of the 10 left. he gets an LBW wicket with his first ball as Brookes swings and misses the slog sweep. He goes for a run a ball 24 at 196 for 6. Out comes Matthew Waite. - a strong shot player with a job of getting 10 an over for the next 10 to reach 300.
Worcestershire are held under 200 by Tom going for only 1 run and taking a wicket. Kasey comes back at the other end for his 8th and bowls tightly with them only getting to 200 from his last ball. Excellent lines in the start of his final spell.
Cullen sixes Lammonby in the 43rd but the new TomL comes back hard and the boundary is really the only meanigful shot in the over. 209 for 6 Lammonby 1 for 39. With 7 overs to go their par score is looking difficult to get to with a concerted biowling effort. Ball is on for the next and we are hoping his experience will keep that pressure on. 218 after 44 as Kasey takes over from Tom to continue to ring the changes. Strange that he has bowled 8 from the other end but the variety is designed to keep the bats on their toes. 223 for 6 after the 45th and we keep it tight.
with 5 overs to go, the BBC commentary on 5Live suddenly moves to football with no warning and the Rapids 280 looks a long way off. Ball is on for his 9th and the first goes for four however as Cullen looks to take the leading role in the next 30 balls to get his side there or thereabouts. He has 28 from his 28 while Waite is in the support role with 9 from 16. He is coming up the wicket but he keeps missing it, though Rew is standing back so stumping is not on the cards. He finally gets the ramp right to move the score into the 230s taking 10 off the over.
Green takes his 9th with the 47th at 1 for 38. Josh Thomas catches Cullen going big for 32 from 30 at 234 for 7. In comes Tom Taylor who is a danger man at the end of an innings with the bat. The over ends with 4 runs and a wicket - very useful in the context of the game. Jake will bowl out with the 48th as he takes the pace off the first for a dot ball. A hard flash from Waite gets an edged four in the middle of his last and he finishes with an 'expensive' wicketless 62 at 245 for 7. He has done his job though the odd flash has pushed his total up but a decent spell.
Kasey gets a surprise 49th and he goes for 2 consecutive sixes at the start of it - why? Green has one and Tom also has one left. Makes no sense to be hinest as he has moved Worcestershire past 250 when they were struggling to pass it 2 balls ago!! Kasey goes for 20 off an over he did not need to bowl and we allow ther home side to get to to 265 while not bowling out one of our tightest bowlers. Don't understand that I'm afraid.
Green takes the last and he gets a wicket with his first ball as Waites is caught by Roberts (sub) from his first ball. He then gets the new man with his 4th ball caught by Ball for 2 and Khurram survives 2 scambling a single to let Taylor hit a six off the last one to get to 275 for 9. Green finishes with 4 for 52. Lammonby only bowled 9 for 39... Nuff said I'm afraid. Taylor finished with 22 from 10 Khurram with 1.
It was a solid bowling effort with 2 suprising decisions. The one to bowl Goldsworthy (probably to save an Aldridge over) which cost 11 at the start of the 40s and then to decide to bowl Aldridge with other options in the 49th which cost 20. I think we've given them over 20 runs there. Will it matter? Only if it does I suppose. We need 276 to go to Trent Bridge.
The Reply
Khurram Shazad bowls the first at Lammonby and Vaughan and goes 11 with 6 of those coming in extras. Taylor opens from the other end, is much tighter but doea allow Tom to open his shoulders for at least 1 boundary to move the score to 15 and then 19 by the end of the 2nd. Taylor is going past the outside edge almost every ball but there have been no knicks so far. Shazad also nearly gets a leading edge to hand in his next over as we move into the 5th. Unfortunately it is away for his hand and he can't get enough on it. However, Lammonby looks to lift one and gets a leading edge to Waite in the 5th. It is 24 for 1 with Tom going for 9 from 13.
Out comes Goldsworthy on a difficult pitch to get in on. Shazad bowls a wicket maiden. The worrying thing is that Taylor is by far the more dangerous bowler in these early overs. Presently he is bowling about 3 pearlers per over. Luckily we can't get a bat on any of them.
Shazad gets another as Lewis inexplicably tries a hook shot and gets a top edge which skies to be caught and he goes for 10 courtesy of the hands of Ethan Brookes. Out comes James Rew at 46 for 2 to join Vaughan on 19 from 29.
The 50 arrives in the 9th via a four from Vaughan to move to 51. However he is out next ball to a great low catch by Allison from Shazad. He goes for 23 from 32 as Thomas Rew comes out with a bit of a problem and Shazad takes 3 in the first 'Powerplay'. Somerset are 3 down needing another 225 from 41 overs. A hard job of work in front of the remaining 7 bats.
With 10 gone we have 55 for 3 - up with the RRR but well behind the DLS and nothing easy about this task. Shazad makes it harder though as Thomas Rew is caught at first slip by Jones for no score (the first time in this competition) and we are 55 for 4 and this may not be our day I'm afraid. Josh Thomas is in the middle and this is possibly the hardest challenge we have had in games we have won. We may have gone as far as we will in this year's contest I'm afraid.
Waite is introduced in the 15th and at the end of his over Josh gets hold of one and it is either six or out. BUT it is out as it does not reach the rope and is caught by Lategan on the boundary. 67 for 5 with Fin Hill walking out to join his skipper.
Allison, the change at the other end a little earler comes in to bowl his second and has James dropped in the slips from the third ballof his over. It did carry but was put down. Rew continues on 11 fro 24 while Fin has yet to score. it is early but this one has the feeling that it is not to be for us today I'm afraid. There's a long way to go but the odds are against us from here one would say.
Just before we reach 20 overs some good bowling from Allison with 6 from his 3 sees Hill, frustrated, swinging at a ball outside off and being caught by Jones at fo]irst slip. He goes for 5 from 18 and we are 76 for 6 as Ben Green joins Rew with a mountain to climb but 30 overs to climb it in. The RRR has risen to 6 and a half while we are presently scoring at less than 4 and the Worcestershire bowling attack is well on top.
Ben is a strong bat but needs to keep his cool and build with James they are really the only two left capable of pulling this out of the fire but it will need a concerted batting performance from two people who can lost their heads when everything is going their way. At the start of the 22nd they have moved the score to 87 for 6 leaving them with 189 to score in 168 balls so a solid, semi-Conservative, approach makes this still possible but we have almost no leeway to make a mistake if they want to get there.
Somerset move to 100 in the 23rd with Rew on 24 from 36 and Green on 14 from 14. They are looking to take on anything loose from Waite or Allison but that way gives the greatest risk because it is Kasey after this and then we have Jake and Jack and that is your lot. Just after saying this Green is caught at mid-off by Taylor off the bowling of Allison at 108 for7. He goes for 14 from 15.
At that point the umpires take them off for rain with the DLS 100 ahead of where Somerset are. This is done people I am afraid and a great competition with loads of positives will come to an end in Worcester tonight which ever way the weather lets it happen.
When the rain stops and the game restarts at 10 past 6 in the evening the DLS basically makes the game pointless. After losing 12 overs to the weather Somerset now require a target reduced by THREE runs. So they need 165 off 14 overs and 2 balls. Why not just stop the game and say Worcestershire have won. so fro 6 and half and over they need 11 and a half an over. I understand the popint of DLS I simply don't understnad why they don't just ask Somerset if they feel it is pointless and let them give it away.
The bowling restrictions are down to 8 overs each bowler and it is very dark out there at 6pm. Allison is bowling the end of his over to Aldridge who came in at the start of play. They need 164 from 84 balls with 3 wickets in hand. Taylor bowls the next (the 25th of 38) but he gets nothing. In fact it is Brookes who comes on to bowl the 26th who gets a wicket in his first over as Aldridge is caught behind off a small edge trying to cut at 118 for 8. he goes fopr 4 from 6 and Jack Leach comes out.
Taylor is cut for four by the spinner with the first ball of the next over and he then runs 3 in the same over. It's 127 for 8 at the end of that one. They need less than 150 but the RRR keeps going up. Jack goes being stumped as he swings, the ball hits Cullen and bounces down on to the stumps. He didn't hold it but Leach was out of his crease. 136 for 9 with Leach going for 13 from 11. In comes Jake as Allison takes the next one (29th) James is on strike but he is not taking the runs to put Ball in the firing line. It is really now pointless because unless the skipper hits boundaries he will not advance the score and the RRR will simplly rise until we lose. He takes a single off the last ball of the 29th to steal the strike.
Brookes bowls the 30th with 2 for 12. Rew hits the first one for four. The next goes aerial and is caught and he is out for 47 at 141. Ball is not out for 0.
And that is it. Worcestershire win by 131 runs (based on the DLS total). Basically the Rapids win. Not a lot more to say about the end. Done Dusted. Well played to the squad, all of who stood up and were counted at diffferent point fo the competition. Back to the Blast semi next Saturday and then the Championship run in with maybe a Finals day in September? Well we'll have to see won't we?
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:09:05:12:44:34 by Grockle.
Much will depend on the condition of the Worcester wicket, especially after today`s rain. But if they are to opt for Ogborne`s left-arm option, if is likely to be Fin Hill or Jack Leach who misses out. The absence of the former might leave the tail looking slightly long in a 50-over contest.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:08:30:19:02:53 by Grockle.
Good to see Alfie named in the squad again and that may be the only decision as the front seven are pretty much set as;
Vaughan, Lammonby, Goldsworthy, Rew, Rew, Thomas, Hill
No real reason to change that to be honest. Fin may give a place to Kian and he gives the extra bowling option. However, Kasey was statrting to put it together a little more on Thursday so....
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:09:05:12:45:17 by Grockle.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:08:30:18:36:35 by Loyal of Lhasa.
Thanks for pointing it out I have rectified the error.
[www.youtube.com]
I'm guessing this is a cultural reference that most of us here are of an age to recognise without recourse to the YouTube link.
And, if I could have made it from Bath to Worcester by train before 11.30 or so tomorrow morning, I would be there, but it's not possible.
Should Somerset make it to the final I shall buy a ticket, as I did last year, though I had to get back to Bath on Monday so missed the game. Hey ho. Though the refund from Notts came through very quickly without me having to contact them.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:08:30:23:07:37 by Grockle.
Same team
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:08:31:10:42:53 by Mike TA1.
2 consecutive sixes probably suggests that was not the right decision as they go past 250 after struggling to get there.
2 consecutive sixes probably suggests that was not the right decision as they go past 250 after struggling to get there.
A 20 run over is NOT what we wanted when we won't bowl out one of Lammonby or Green
Odd choice indeed.
I simply don't understand the decision to then bowl him when Tom had an over left.
Ahh well. As I've just typed in the report. It will only matter if it does!!
They have 20 more than we should have given them so we have to score 20 more than we needed to to win, Simples.
Ben Green as learned to do it... and we're losing him. Is Tom Lammonby our solution?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:08:31:16:41:41 by Grockle.
We have been second best with the bat today but it has been an excellent and uplifting competition for our side and we have learned an awful lot about the players coming through. I also think we have confirmed that the decisions being made about the squad are p[retty much on the right track.
We have bowling issues definitely but the situation is not as dire as it seemed and it can be worked with.
But the bottom line is that we (still) rarely perform at our very best when the chips are down.
Not a new problem, but one that simply has to be overcome.
Saturday would be a good start.
Grizzers
And is there anybody on this site not wishing for a victory in the final by Worcestershire CCC aka Nottinghamshire CCC Academy?
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
The forecast showers of course were another good reason to bowl first, as then when Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern come to the party, you are fully aware of where you need to be in the run chase. Sadly, the first rule of DLS club is thou shalt not lose early wickets, as this makes your run chase more difficult. And the second rule is, if you do, don't continue to lose wickets, as eventually it will make your DLS target ridiculously out of reach.
Worcestershire bowled better, probably fielded better and took a couple of "worldy" catches. In young Dan Lategan they have quite a talent (who in a year or two may well be scoring rubs at Edgbaston or Trent Bridge). New Road is always a welcoming place and it took me a while to realise a reason I was concentrating on th e actual cricket rather than my mind wandering was because they didn't feel the need to play short clips of music at the end if every over, for every boundary and every wicket. It really was rather splendid.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
He is a South African, signed by Worcester on a three-year contract as an overseas player.