Somerset Fly The Flag For England, Kolkata Sneak Through

Somerset Fly The Flag For England, Kolkata Sneak Through

Peter Trego (centre) hit a blistering 70 in 61 balls as Somerset qualified for the group stages with a fine performance

©Action Images / Ian Smith Livepic

Somerset 166-6 (Trego 70, van der Merwe 40) beat
Kolkata Knight Riders 155-8 by 11 runs
Champions League T20 qualifier, Hyderabad
Scorecard

Somerset produced an excellent performance to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 11 runs although both teams qualify for the group stages of the Champions League Twenty20.

Peter Trego's outstanding innings of 70 and a belligerent innings of 40 from Roelof van der Merwe drove the English runners-up to a score of 166 for six.

That proved to be beyond Kolkata but they were able to reach a target of 153, closing on 155 for eight to ensure they crept in on net run-rate, denying Ruhuna the chance to take their place in the group stages.

Trego was in brilliant form, first opening the batting with Chris Jones (14) and then formng a partnership with van der Merwe, who faced just 25 balls, to tear the Kolkata bowling apart in the middle overs.

Nick Compton also joined in the carnage by hitting 20 in ten balls and despite two wickets from Brett Lee, Kolkata always looked like they had a struggle on their hands.

They didn't help themselves with the early run out of Manvinder Bisla for eight and the dismissal of captain Jacques Kallis for one, caught by James Hildreth off Murali Kartik.

Leg-spinner Max Waller then grabbed two quick wickets to see off Shreevats Goswami, caught by Compton for 14 and Manon Tiwary, bowled as he got in a horrible tangle for 27.

It was then left to Ryan ten Doeschate to keep the Knight Riders in the competition, the Dutchman hitting 46 in 31 balls and by the time he was out, bowled by van der Merwe in the final over, he had done enough, with support from Shakib Al Hasan (13) and Rajat Bhatia (19) to put Ruhuna out.

Van der Merwe's outstanding all-round performance was capped off when he took a brilliant flying catch on the boundary to dismiss Shakib as he and Trego combined as devastatingly as they had with the bat.

© Cricket World 2011