There’s nothing like last-day red-ball cricket, the place all of the funding of time, vitality, and feelings culminates into resounding pleasure or utter heartbreak. The County Championship delivered one such basic in Taunton as Jack Leach capped off a Surrey collapse with minutes left on the clock.
The race for the County Championship title took a significant twist at The Cooper Associates County Floor as Somerset defeated leaders Surrey by 111 runs on Day 4 to chop the hole on the high to a mere eight factors with two rounds of fixtures remaining. The win was arrange by a Tom Banton ton and Archie Vaughan fifer within the first innings that helped the hosts hold parity with their rivals earlier than a limping Banton scored a heroic 46 in a 71-run stand for the final wicket to set a goal of 221 for Surrey. The encounter appeared destined for a draw with Surrey holding fort comfortably with seven wickets left heading into the ultimate session when Vaughan and Jack Leach triggered a deadly collapse to whittle the guests down from 95/3 to 101/8 inside seven overs.
Jordan Clark and Kemar Roach gave Surrey a second wind by enjoying out 70 deliveries, the eight runs within the partnership all coming off extras, to depart simply minutes on the clock for Somerset to drag off a fabled win. Leach took the ball in hand for maybe one final effort and in magical style, Clark nicked one behind to depart for a 47-run duck. With Roach on the different finish having survived 30 balls already, Leach virtually had simply two balls in hand to someway scalp Daniel Worrall earlier than the Windies batter returned to strike. He thus stationed all 9 fielders across the bat, with three slips, a fly slip, short-leg, leg gully, foolish mid-off and mid-on, and a foolish level. Worrall fended his first ball however the second pitched on good size and slid by means of alongside Leach’s arm, beating the willow’s inside edge and thumping into the pads.
All 11 Somerset males went up in unison and the umpire took little tile tim elevate his finger, sending Leach wheeling away in celebration with all his teammates sprinting after him. The noise on the floor was deafening whereas even the printed cameras shook up and down with the stadium’s vitality, securing the match’s legacy as a County basic.
❤️ Cricket ❤️#SOMvSUR#WeAreSomerset pic.twitter.com/S7IrAEMezz
— Somerset Cricket (@SomersetCCC) September 12, 2024