Hot under the collar

Vitality Blast T20  Surrey v Somerset

Somerset 157/9;  Surrey 158/4 in 17.3 overs.  Surrey win by six wickets

I always seem to have problems getting to the Oval.  This time, the A303 is effectively blocked between the Podimore and Hazelgrove roundabouts, so I decide to head up the A37, turn right at Lydford and rejoin the A303 at Wincanton.  Good plan. Only one problem. The A371 between Castle Cary and Wincanton is closed.  So it's a tortuous drive across country via Wyke Champflower (where the road signs are in English and Polish, presumably for the benefit of the milk tanker drivers) and Bruton.  By the time I reach the dual carriageway beyond Wincanton, I've already been on the road for more than an hour, and there's still Stonehenge (which lived up to its reputation) to come.  I pull into a lay-by to check the times of trains from Basingstoke, only to discover that they all have "this service is subject to a bulletin" against them, the 'bulletin' being 'severe disruption caused by points failure'. Jesus!

I do reach Vauxhall eventually, having traveled on a train in which the air-conditioning has broken down in half the carriages, this on one of the hottest days of the year, but I don't have time to meet up with David Horler, the Somerset farmer who has given the world "Tractor Ted" and is as dedicated a Somerset follower as you will find.

This evening, BBC Somerset is doing its own commentary (although you wouldn't know it from the BBS Sports website, which has failed to provide a link) and I'll be working with Stephen Lamb. It's the first T20 game he's seen this season so I bring him up to date with who's who and what's what, the bottom line being that the batting is over-reliant on the two Bs, and spin more effective than seam.  It proves to be a taste of things to come.

On a balmy evening, in front of the usual massive, half-cut Oval crowd, Tom Abell wins the toss and (hooray!) elects to bat first on what looks like a fresh pitch.  Babar and Banton waste no time, and no opportunity, as the former takes two fours off Imran Tahir in the first over, while the latter dispatches Dernbach for three fours in a second over costing 15 runs. It's great stuff, the ball coming nicely onto the bat, a steady flow of singles, punctuated by at least one boundary every over, and the mishits aren't going to hand.  The powerplay concludes with 56/0 on the board, by the end of the 8th over it is 79/0,  Somerset surely on course for a commanding total, somewhere in the region of 200.

But spin has replaced seam for Surrey, and it is the spin of Imran Tahir which accounts for Banton, mishitting to deep square-leg. Out comes Hildreth, striding to the crease with that familiar, slightly bow-legged walk of his, as if determined to make amends for his hapless performance against Glamorgan. A reverse sweep, which makes only passing contact with the ball, produces a single off his first ball. To his second, from Batty, he comes down the pitch, presumably to drive, is beaten in the flight and smartly stumped by Foakes. The rot has started, and it soon spreads.  Babar and Byrom go in Tahir's next over, both caught and bowled, Abell is stumped, lifting his back foot while attempting a reverse sweep, and in the 14th, van der Merwe makes no secret of his disgust at being given out LBW halfway down the pitch.  As the wickets tumble and the runs dry up, it's beginning to look as if Somerset may not even reach 150, never mind 200, until a bizarre over from Dernbach, featuring two no balls and a wide, gives the score a much-needed boost and even that includes the wicket of Lammonby.  Waller and Taylor scramble two off the last ball to take the total to 157/9, but that feels at least 30 runs short.

Surrey need to win both this and their final game, at home to Essex, to have any chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, and their net run rate could do with a boost.  So Aaron Finch, barrel-chested, bristling with Aussie aggression, is intent on big hits and quick runs.  Max Waller bowls his usual excellent first over, costing just one run, but the opening of the flood gates is merely postponed. Jerome Taylor's first over goes for 12, and then Finch pulls Overton's first ball dismissively for the first of his nine sixes.  The odd wicket does fall, as Surrey take risks in trying to knock off the runs as quickly as possible, but any chance that Somerset might actually make a fight of it disappears when Finch is dropped by Overton on the boundary - a very rare lapse indeed, it should be said, but one that produces the biggest roar of the night. The target is reached half way through the 17th over, Finch having gone to his hundred off just 52 balls.  It feels like a crushing defeat.

When I interview him afterwards, Jason Kerr is as pointed in his criticism, not just of the middle-order batting, but of the bowling and fielding as well, as I've ever known him.  "So are you going to make changes for the must-win game against Middlesex, given that the batting unit is obviously seriously over-reliant on Banton and Babar and  you've got players like Trego, Bartlett and Bess waiting in the wings?", I ask him  He is non-committal. It wouldn't entirely surprise me if he fields an unchanged team.

I'm away in good time for the journey home, and manage to catch the 22.12 from Clapham Junction, first stop Basingstoke, final destination Poole. Within about five minutes of leaving the station, in a hot and crowded train, the train manager (or whatever they call guards these days) is on the tannoy.  "We are sorry to announce that the air-conditioning system is not working anywhere on the train, and we currently have no toilets in working order", he intones, dolefully. By the time I get out at Basingstoke, dripping with sweat, they've managed to get one toilet working; one! -for a nine coach train with several hundred people on board.  "It's an absolute disgrace", I tweet, and so it is. But will anything be done about it?  Rather as with Somerset's middle order, I have my doubts!