Somersault 187 for 6 (Smeed 78) hit gloucestershire 186 for 8 (Roelofsen 52, Taylor 42*) by four wickets
Somerset’s reply of 187 for 6 in 19.3 overs was dominated by opener Smeed, who followed up his 94 in the corresponding South Group game at Bristol, by bowling 78 for 42 balls, making five sixes and seven fours.
Ben Green (37) and Kasey Aldridge (32 not out) cruised to victory with a sixth-wicket position of 48, as the group leaders posted ten wins from 12 games, securing a top-two finish as their closest pursuers. Close by, Surrey and Essex still have each other to play with.
It seemed that Gloucestershire would need a good start to have a realistic chance of delivering an upset and they got the exact opposite, losing Miles Hammond and Ben Charlesworth in Henry’s first over, his second of the game.
When Craig Overton trapped Ben Wells behind a lift, Gloucestershire was in disarray. James Bracey hit a quick 17, including a six on Overton, but somehow managed to throw a catch to point out what would have been the side of Josh Davey’s leg and late on the power play of six more, the score reads 44 for 4.
Roelofson and van Buuren then produced an excellent standing 71 in 6.2 overs to revive Gloucestershire’s fortunes. The eleventh, bowled by Green, the best wicket-taker in the competition, was for 20 as Roelofsen scored sixes at half-wicket and square leg.
Offspinner Shoaib Bashir, making his home debut for Somerset, bowled van Buuren, who had hit two sixes and four fours, with a spun ball, but Roelofsen made it to fifty for 36 balls before being run down by a direct hit from Tom Abell at pitcher. end up trying a single to extra coverage.
Dale Benkenstein, the Gloucestershire head coach, suggested that Somerset should have recalled Roelofsen after he collided with Henry. “I didn’t think it was a fair firing,” he said. “I hold Tom Abell in very high regard and respect him as a cricketer, but I felt it was a very bad decision not to call Grant.
“Their argument is that he should have run around the bowler and that they had a right to appeal. But if the bowler hadn’t been there, Grant would have fought back and I don’t think it was fair cricket.”
David Payne was also bowled out, at the non-striker end, by a sharp fielding of his own bowling by Green, but Taylor began to have fun, clearing Green’s ropes before being caught at third man on a Henry no- ball. .
The reprieve saw Taylor hit a second six, off Henry, and Josh Shaw also hit a maximum off Davey, who responded by bowling the last over of the innings for just three runs.
Shaw started Somerset’s innings with a wicket maiden, with Tom Banton caught behind his second ball. But Smeed retaliated with a six and a four in the second over, dispatched by Payne.
Smeed then hit Ajeet Dale over midwicket on the top deck of decks as 17 came out of third. But Payne struck back in the next, Tom Kohler-Cadmore leaping to the half where Gloucestershire captain Hammond made a comfortable catch.
Abell was brought down trying to get a full ball from Zaman Akhter and Somerset reached the end of the power play on 53 for 3, Smeed having effortlessly lifted another six over midwicket off Shaw.
Akhter then yorked Sean Dickson before Smeed went for a 26-ball fifty that thrilled another sellout crowd at Cooper Associates County Ground. His brilliant display ended at 13 when he missed a shot from Dale to van Buuren from long range.
Green hit a straight six off van Buuren’s left-arm spin as the fourteenth went for 16, then cleared Shaw’s extra coverage boundary rope. Aldridge provided excellent support and it took 27 of the last three overs.
Green fell into a catch on Dale’s short, thin leg. But Craig Overton’s six over midwicket and Akhter’s four straight left Somerset requiring eight from the final over, brought down by van Buuren.
An Aldridge four-over-additional coverage sandwiched between a pair of twos and sealed the deal to the delight of the home crowd.
