T20 Blast 2022 | 4th Quarter-final | Blistering innings from Rossouw, Banton secure historical win for Somerset

Rilee Rossouw and Tom Banton produced brilliant knocks to help Somerset seal a place in the semi-finals of T20 Blast 2022 on July 9 at Taunton. Derbyshire Falcons faced a humbling 191-run loss, which is the highest-ever in the Tournament’s history. 

Derbyshire won the toss and opted to field first. Opener Banton started with boundaries through the sweep and reverse sweep in successive deliveries off Mark Watt in the second over. 

Will Smeed played a knock of 18, before getting holed out to the bowler Ben Aitchison with a mistimed shot. Then  Rossouw arrived at the crease, which opted for an aggressive approach and partnered up well with Banton. 

The short-arm jab shot towards Deep mid-wicket played a key role in paving the momentum for the South African international in the 10th over. 

In the subsequent over, Banton reached his fifty. A couple of overs later, Rossouw hit his seventh fifty of the ongoing season. 

In the first two balls of the 17captainth over, Banton hit glorious sixes off the Deep mid-wicket region. However, he was holed out at long-off in the subsequent ball. 

However, the 32-year-old Rossouw continued his momentum to smash five sixes and a four off one over of Matt Mckiernan. The other two extras made it a 36-run over. It was clean hitting from the experienced campaigner to clear the fences of Backward square-leg and Long-on region. 

Mckiernan finished with the figures of 0/82 in four overs, which was the most expensive figures in the T20 Blast history. 

However, Rossouw became a victim to George Scrimshaw in the 14th over, and fell short by seven runs of century. Then, Tom Lammonby hit 31 off 9 balls, and helped the team to post 265, which is the highest-ever total in the Tournament’s history. 

Scrimshaw was the pick of the bowlers for Falcons with figures of 2/16 in four overs. 

Then, Craig Overton made Derbyshire captain Harry Came holed out at slips in the first over. 

Siddle steals the show with the ball

In his third over, Peter Siddle was introduced into the attack, who further strengthened the team with two wickets. Luis Reece (13) was caught at short fine-leg, while Leus du Plooy (0) charged towards Siddle, but his edge got holed out to keeper Banton. 

Siddle also took the wicket of his fellow Aussie, Hilton Cartwright (10) by pitching in short, and making the batter caught at deep mid-wicket. The all-rounder Lewis Gregory was a good support to the team with his accurate lengths to take out two wickets as well. 

In the end, Ben Green scalped three wickets, and Derbyshire were dismissed for 74. 

Somerset will face Hampshire in the second semi-final of T20 Blast on 16 July at Edgbaston. 

Brief Scores: 

Somerset- 265/5 (20)
Rilee Rossouw 93 (36), Tom Banton 73 (41);

George Scrimshaw 2/16

Derbyshire- 74/10 (11.2)

Wayne Madsen 14 (17), Luis Reece 13 (8);
Peter Siddle 3/10, Ben Green 3/17

Result: Somerset won by 191 runs