Bob Willis Trophy: Somerset players help the ground staff in covering the field

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to host a shortened domestic season which includes 50-over women’s competition, Bob Willis Trophy, and T20 Blast. The Bob Wills Trophy commenced from August 1, with the final to take place on September 23 in London.

There are three groups in the tournament namely North, South and Central consisting of six counties per group. The teams will compete against each county in their group and the two group winners with the most points will be up against each other for a five-day final to be played at the Lord’s.

In the Central Group, Somerset (SOM) faced Gloucestershire (GLOUCS) for a match from August 22 to August 25 where a lovely gesture by the Somerset players won the hearts of the cricket fans. What happened was during the fourth day, rain interrupted the play and the match couldn’t begin till lunch due to the wet outfield. The ground staff was trying their best to parch the field so that the game could commence as soon as possible.

That is when the players of the Somerset team namely Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Jack Brooks came forward to help the ground staff in lifting off the covers and running the water removal equipment. Notably, SOM needed just two wickets to clinch the match in their favour at that point.

Praising this effort by their players, Somerset tweeted, “Heroic effort from the SCCC groundstaff during this match”

An insight into the match between Somerset and Gloucestershire

In the five-day match at The Cooper Associates County Ground, Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Somerset team could score 237 runs in the first innings while batting first. In reply, Gloucestershire couldn’t do much as Craig Overton thrashed the opposition with his brilliant figures of 4/25. This resulted in GLOUCS crumbling at 76 runs in 38.2 overs.

After this, in the second innings, SOM declared their innings after adding 223 runs on the board owing to the stunning century by Tom Lammonby and Abell. However, the batting line-up of Gloucestershire failed again as the team got all-out on 70 runs. This resulted in Somerset winning the game with a massive margin of 314 runs.

At present, Somerset is leading the points table in Central Group with 76 points while Gloucestershire is at the third-last place with 37 points.