On top of taking these last two wickets, we could do with Essex failing in their run chase. Looking unlikely though.
Top win. Fair play to Northeast. I thought putting all our eggs in one basket - ie bat on, bowl Surrey out, to win by an innings - was taking a real risk, and much less likely to win us the game as compared to setting something up with Surrey. But he's choice has paid off.
Bastard weather denies Somerset a certain maximum pointer. So we have to settle for just 17 points, putting us second in the Central group behind Worcester, who managed to bowl Northants out. I fancy the weather will play a huge part in deciding which two teams reach the final.
Admittedly Surrey didn't have the Curran's who could have done serious damage and Burns who always scores big runs against us but they still had Morkel, Roy, Stoneman, Borthwick and Laurie Evans who are all very good players. We were without Vince, Dawson, Abbott and Barker. Plus the weather wiped out half the match. Really impressed with this win.
Burns, Amla, Pope, Clark, Clarke, Foakes, Curran, Curran, Plunkett, Topley, Dernbach is an entire XI missing. But they also have, by a mile, the biggest squad of all 18 counties. Even with the side they did put out, arguably only Northeast from our 11 would get into it
Sussex doing their best. But unless someone takes a hattrick of their own, Essex will get over the line.
We'll just have to thrash Essex in the next match at least we managed to pull out a vital win from a certain draw.
Hopefully the weather will play fair for that match. Well done to both Essex and Hampshire and shame on Kent and Middlesex on playing out a tame draw. Middlesex know they are very ordinary, Kent perhapa have a better side, so the two captains should have got their heads together to have given one of them a chance of victory in the hope of catching Essex, instead of the zero chance they negotiated to put both out of the picture.
Buttler is finally starting to come good in test cricket this summer. Just a shame for him that we might not have another test for months!
