New South Wales sealed their spot in the semi finals on account of a huge win over Somerset in their final match of the Super Eights. Simon Katich called right at the toss and elected to bowl first which did not disappoint rival skipper Justin Langer too much.
That said, the performance of his batsmen on a perfect batting pitch surely would have let him down as Somerset could muster only 111/7 in their stipulated 20 overs. In response, the champions from Australia romped home in 11.5 overs and in the process lost only 4 wickets.
David Warner set up the chase for his team with an innings that virtually killed the morale of the bowling. His 40 off 16 balls was an innings full of great shots but the win for NSW was set up by the tidy bowling of Stuart Clark, a performance for which he was rightly adjudged the ‘Man of the Match.’
Brett Lee was in top form as not only did he concede next to nothing in his 1st two overs but also planted some serious seeds of doubt in the batsman’s mind. Tight bowling from Lee was backed up by an even more impressive spell by Stuart Clark.
The bowler picked up both the openers in his very 1st over and backed it up with another wicket in his next one.
None of the batsman could get any real momentum and runs were very difficult to come by. Four of the top five Somerset batsmen got out in single digit scores and it was thanks to some vital boundaries hit towards the death by Zander de Bruyn and Jos Buttler that Somerset could even go past the 100 mark. Stuart Clark’s figures of 4-0-15-3 were the best from the NSW team but Lee’s spell of genuine quick bowling was of equally top stuff.
Any thoughts that Langer and Co. would have had of upsetting the opposition got skittled in the 1st few overs of the chase.
David Warner seemed to be in the hitting form of his life as his blazing knock of 40 from 16 simply took the wind out of the bowling. Omari Banks was especially taken to the cleaners and his fellow bowling partner in Peter Trego was no better as his solitary over went for 15, thanks to Daniel Smith who smoked three boundaries in it. NSW lost 3 wickets in the space of 2 overs as Phillip Hughes, Daniel Smith and Moises Henriques all perished one after the other.
But the target was such a small one and the kind of damage that Warner had inflicted was so much that when the 4th wicket fell, the target required was only 24 from 10.3 overs. Captain Simon Katich and Steven Smith ensured that there were no more hiccups as the side got to the finishing line with more than 8 overs to spare. It brought an end to a disappointing campaign by Somerset and this game also market the retirement from all forms of the game for their skipper and Aussie veteran Justin Langer.