Eagles Soar As Somerset Crash To Defeat

Eagles Soar As Somerset Crash To Defeat

Boeta Dippenaar skippered the Eagles to their second win in a row.

©Action Images / Jason Cairnduff Livepic

Diamond Eagles 133-5 (van Wyk 47) beat
Somerset 132-8 (Durston 57, de Villiers 4-17) by five wickets
Airtel Champions League Twenty20 League A, Hyderabad

Cornelius de Villiers and Morné van Wyk inspired the Diamond Eagles to a five-wicket win over Somerset that kept them in contention for a semi-final berth.

De Villiers, the Eagles' hero when they beat Sussex in a bowl-out in the first group stage, starred again by taking four for 17 as Somerset were held to 132 for eight before van Wyk made 47 as his side eased home with five wickets and eight balls in hand.

Without Marcus Trescothick, who has returned home due to a recurrence of a stress-related illness, Somerset struggled and were soon in trouble at 52 for five thanks to the efforts of de Villiers, Thandi Tshabalala (1-18) and Alan Kruger (1-14).

It took Wes Durston's 57 in 32 balls and James Hildreth's 31 in 40 to haul them up to something that looked defendable but the Eagles were too strong with the bat, despite a mini-collapse late on that gave Somerset brief hope of snatching a win.

Van Wyk led from the top, his 47 coming in 41 balls with four fours and a six and while Riley Rossouw (13), Adrian McLaren (13) and Boeta Dippenaar (18) all got in and got out, 29 from Ryan Bailey got the South African side to the brink.

The only ray of hope for Somerset came when van Wyk and Bailey were dismissed in quick succession by Alfonso Thomas but Ryan McLaren (4) and Kruger (0) steered the South Africans home.

Charl Willoughby also picked up two wickets for Somerset, for whom defeat means almost certain elimination from the tournament.

© Cricket World 2009

Breaking news, score updates and interviews on Cricket World Live - tune in from Monday to Friday, 10:00 - 16:00 GMT and, get the latest from Cricket World® with Facebook, twitter and YouTube and keep up with the action with the latest cricket TV highlights and interviews.