Trego blitz sets up Somerset win by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Ground:	County Ground, Taunton, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street, County Ground, Derby, The Kent County Cricket Ground, Beckenham, Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood
Scorecard:	Somerset v Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire v Lancashire, Durham v Worcestershire, Derbyshire v Leicestershire, Kent v Gloucestershire, Middlesex v Surrey
Player:	ME Trescothick, PD Trego, KW Hogg, RJ Sidebottom, MJ Di Venuto, Azhar Mahmood, JC Tredwell, MR Ramprakash

---

DateLine: 4th July 2009

 

Division One

 

A breath-taking assault by Peter Trego down the order helped Somerset to chase down a huge target of 479 in 85.5 overs. Set 476 in 90 overs, Trego's breathtaking display built on the earlier fine work of Arul Suppiah, who made a career-best 131 and added 187 for the first wicket Marcus Trescothick. It was the second highest Championship chase and eighth highest in first-class cricket. Trescothick and Suppiah blazed away in fine style until Trescothick was bowled four short of his ton. Trego exploded towards the end as he smashed nine sixes.

 

Nottinghamshire were denied a shot at victory as heavy rain prevented match from getting over. Strongly placed overnight with Lancashire facing a long day's struggle to save a draw, when one wave of heavy rain swept through the before lunch, to be followed by another early in the afternoon. Nottinghamshire had struck one early blow when Karl Brown, was caught by Hussey off Sidebottom. Kyle Hogg, batted well enough to keep the Notts bowlers at bay with gutsy 34 while MB Loye made 31.

 

Durham overcame Worcestershire and the weather to win a tense contest by five wickets. Durham began the morning needing another 115 runs to win their match with nine wickets left. Di Venuto anchored the chase as his team mates lost their wickets to some needless shots. Di Venuto completed his century and his team victory at the same time. Barring Di Venuto, the other Durham batsmen looked in hurry as they tried to finish off the match in hurry. Di Venuto showed his experience and class as he took it upon him self to make sure that the run chase does not get derailed in the end.

 

Division Two

 

Rain played the spoilt sport, as it prevented Leicestershire and Derbyshire from pushing for win in the final day. Leicestershire was 256 runs ahead and might have batted for an hour setting Derbyshire a target of around 320, but all that would remain guess work as in the end the weather had its final say.

 

Kent scored a 76 run win over Gloucestershire as Beckenham. It was the double act from the former Pakistani all rounder Azhar Mahmood and James Tredwell that derailed Gloucestershire’s run chase. Gloucestershire began the day on 131 for 5 needed another 201 for an unlikely victory and soon lost three more wickets. They lost Vikram Banerjee, Snell and Hussain in quick succession, but Lewis and Franklin battled hard as there were some worried faces in the Kent camp as this partnership began to gather steam. But then Tredwell picked up Franklin and Mahmood took the final wicket to get his fifth wicket of the innings.

 

Mark Ramprakash stood defiant in the face of some sustained hostile bowling from the Middlesex bowlers as they tried everything to win the match. Finn struck twice and the spin twins Kartik and Udal spun out three wickets to leave the Surrey camp tensed. But then Ramprakash showed the importance of patience as he hung around offering dead bat to anything straight and leaving the balls outside the off stump with the sole aim of seeing his team through to a draw. In the end the Middlesex team management will rue the fact that they did not have a bowler with the extra pace to knock out the remaining wickets.