So Hampshire and Somerset, two teams with good records in the past few years face off in the second semi-final to face Yorkshire this evening.
Hampshire won the toss and decided to field
Hampshire like to bowl first and use their line up of slow bowlers to wear down the opposition. It only took two overs for them to get a wicket too as Levi was caught for 1. Trescothick then bashed a 4 and a 6 in an innings of 12 from 9 balls but he was clean bowled by Mascarenhas to leave the score on 22-2.
Briggs came on as first change and picked up the third wicket of Hildreth for 1 and Somerset needed to rebuild. Kieswetter was still there and he was joined by the equally as explosive Buttler. The latter knocked a 4 and a 6 but couldn't stay in as he was bowled by Ervine. The same bowler quickly removed Trego (1) with Somerset reeling on 58-5.
Overs were starting to run out and although Kieswetter (63*) went to a good half century the innings needed something special to lift them to a par score. Gregory was run out for 9, leaving Suppiah to bat through to the close. He failed to find the boundary however and Somerset finished on a poor 125-6.
Carberry made the better start clipping a couple of boundaries, while Adams scraped to 8 from 11 balls. He was caught brilliantly by Buttler off the bowling of Kirby, but 33 were already on the board. Vince added 7 with a single boundary before being clean bowled by Waller who was spinning the ball and causing a few problems for the batsmen.
Somerset needed to keep taking wickets to restrict Hampshire and although Carberry moved to 33 he was run out easily to send some nerves through the dug out. At the half way stage Hampshire were only on 59-3.
McKenzie's excellent knock against Nottinghamshire was the reason Hampshire made finals day, but his average this season is poor and he could only add 10 before going lbw with the score on 72. Ervine came out to join Ervine and the two experienced players saw out the next couple of overs. Singles began to come easily and with the occasional boundary the run rate slowly came down. Trescothick's bowlers struggled to threaten like they had earlier and the batsmen eased past 100.
With two overs left only 10 were required and Ervine guided away another 4 to take Hampshire almost home. A couple more singles and a two handed Hampshire the win, while Somerset once again fail to take home any silverware.
Somerset - 125-6 (Kieswetter 63*, Mascarenhas 2 for 11)
Hampshire - 126-4 (Ervine 34*, Kirby 1 for 16)
Hampshire win by 6 wickets
Star Player: Mascarenhas for his two early wickets that restricted Somerset and for only giving 11 runs in four overs.
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