Marcus Trescothick’s England days might long be over but he’s still a top-notch batsman in County Cricket and he just seems to get better with age. During the course of Somerset’s 10-wicket triumph over Nottinghamshire earlier today, Trescothick achieved a unique feat of spending the entire match time of 1315 minutes over match days on the field of play.
At the beginning of the final day’s play on the iconic Trent Bridge cricket grounds, hosts Nottinghamshire looked far from danger with Jake Libby and former Zimbabwe international cricketer Brendan Taylor at the crease with eight wickets in hand. However, with the score at 74/2, Australian medium-pacer Jim Allenby trapped Taylor right in front of the wickets to spark off a batting collapse for the hosts.
Allenby was the one who got the next wicket as well having Riki Wessels, son of the legendary South African cricketer Kepler Wessels, caught at slip for naught. The biggest blow for Nottinghamshire came when Craig Overton dismissed the well-settled Libby when the opening batsman’s score was on 44. Three wickets in the space of 12 runs, and with half their side back in the pavilion, the hosts were always going to find the going tough from then on and that proved to be the case.
Though all-rounder Samit Patel put up a brave resistance with a fighting knock of 39, he was left with no support at the other end as Nottinghamshire, who were without the injured Brett Hutton, lost their ninth and final wicket with the score on 135, leaving Somerset with a target of just 100 runs.
The visitors achieved the target in just the 17th over of their second innings and with all wickets intact as with Marcus Trescothick unbeaten on 37 and Johann Myburgh 58 not out. Though overshadowed by his fellow opener in the brisk run chase, Trescothick was the undoubted hero of the match after his majestic double century in the first innings gave Somerset a 36-run first innings lead after the hosts had up 401 batting 1st.
The 10-wicket victory helped Somerset gain 23 points from the match and have put them in a strong position in their hunt for a first-ever County Championship title. With six games left to go in the current season, Somerset are 22 points behind leaders Middlesex and with momentum firmly in their favour, history could well be made in England this season.
Brief scores:
Nottinghamshire 401 & 135: Libby 44; Allenby 3-23, Gregory 3-27
Somerset 437 & 100-0: Myburgh 58*, Trescothick 37*
Nottinghamshire 6 pts; Somerset 23 pts - Somerset won by 10 wickets
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