Nine-wicket win puts team back on course after Gloucestershire loss
Somerset 318 (Abell 88, Davies 59) and 115 for 1 (Lammonby 70*) beat Leicestershire 233 and 199 (Overton 5-25) by nine wickets
England all-rounder Craig Overton took five for 25 as Somerset bounced back from last week’s defeat to Gloucestershire to bank 22 points from a three-day, nine-wicket victory over Leicestershire in LV=Insurance County Championship Group Two.
Overton, 10 of whose 18 overs were maidens, produced his best Championship bowling figures since 2015 as Leicestershire – without captain and mainstay Colin Ackermann because of his concussion injury – were bowled out for 199, England left-arm spinner Jack Leach backing him up with three for 43.
It left Somerset needing just 115 to win, which they reached in 26.5 overs for the loss of one wicket only as their prodigiously talented opener Tom Lammonby, the 20-year-old who hit three Bob Willis Trophy centuries in a stunning debut season last year, ended a run of poor scores so far this year with a fine unbeaten 70 that included 13 fours.
A fifth-wicket stand of 76 between Lewis Hill and Harry Swindells raised the home side’s hopes of making a game of it after trailing by 85 on first innings. But as Leach denied Hill a half-century and Overton did likewise to Swindells, Leicestershire lost their last five wickets for 37 runs.
Three down for 48 overnight, Leicestershire lost their fourth wicket to the first ball of the day as Rishi Patel, Ackermann’s concussion substitute, was caught at first slip driving loosely at Overton for 27.
By lunch the home side had turned an overnight deficit of 37 into a lead of 74 but they had lost Hill three runs short of a fifth consecutive half-century as a flighted delivery from Leach turned just enough to take the edge and give Lewis Gregory a catch at slip.
Swindells, who cut Marchant de Lange for six over the slip cordon as well as picking up five boundaries, was undone five overs after lunch by a short delivery by Overton, which he could only fend into the gloves of wicketkeeper Steven Davies to be out for 49.
Overton claimed his fifth wicket with a full, straight ball into Callum Parkinson’s pads as Leicestershire teetered at 168 for seven.
Ben Mike played nicely for his 37 and his fifth boundary at least took Leicestershire’s lead into three figures.
But then Leach took two wickets in two balls, Chris Wright groping at one that took the edge before Dieter Klein wastefully lobbed his first delivery straight to mid-on. Mike ultimately perished throwing the bat, caught at deep backward point off De Lange for 37.
A peach of a ball from Wright bowled Tom Banton and Tom Abell was dropped at second slip off Mike on six but otherwise it was plain sailing for Somerset, who reached tea at 51 for one from 15 overs, as they completed victory just before ten to five, an increasingly fluent Lammonby on-driving Harry Dearden for his 13th boundary to finish the job.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo