Somerset, beaten in each of the three previous domestic Twenty20 finals, suffered a first ever semi-final defeat in the competition when, batting first, they managed to post only 125-6 and were beaten by six wickets by Hampshire at the SWALEC Stadium.
Of the Somerset batsmen, only Craig Kieswetter, who scored 63 not out, managed more than 16, as last year's Champions League t20 semi-finalists were beaten comfortably by the eventual Friends Life t20 champions.
Somerset have now lost on four successive Twenty20 finals days – and, while their consistency in reaching such events is remarkable, skipper Trescothick knows it is not enough.
"It's dreadful," said the former England opener. "So much time and effort goes in, so much dedication and practice, and blood, sweat and tears that you do behind the scenes – and you keep putting yourselves in a position to be shot down.
"At the moment, we're not quite achieving what we believe we can do. It's back to continuing working. I know we will continue to do the hard work and we'll keep striving for more – and, at some point, we will get it right.
"I can't give too much away about what I believe we're going to do now. We probably need a bit of time to think about what we're going to do.
"We've based our club a lot of hard work – and we're a small club with small things that we do, but we are good at what we do. We've just got to get a little bit better."
Somerset lost Richard Levi for one in the second over, Trescothick for 12 in the fourth and James Hildreth for one in the seventh as they struggled to get to grips with a slow Cardiff pitch and Hampshire's attack, led by the magnificent Dimitri Mascarenhas, who took 2-11 from his four overs.
"It's always disappointing, getting to this point (and losing)," said Trescothick. "You put a lot of hard work in to making it such a great day – but we weren't good enough. We were outplayed by a better side.
"Dimi was good at the top of the order – he strangled us with the way he bowled. He's always valuable at the top of the order – and we got off to a bad start, which put us under pressure, losing wickets.
"Craig was the only one who got to grips with the pitch and worked it out. We lost wickets – that was the key part of it. When you're losing wickets in T20, you're not building partnerships, and on a slow and difficult pitch, that's what you need to do – we never did that."
Somerset have little time to dwell on their finals day defeat, as they are back in action at Taunton against Surrey in the CB40 today (1.45pm). They have a slim chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, just as they have a slim chance of winning the LV= County Championship, in which they face Surrey, starting from tomorrow.
And Trescothick, who is confident his team will respond positively to their Cardiff woe, will have his right ankle assessed this morning, before a decision is made on his involvement in today's CB40 game.
"We've been good at bouncing back in the last few years – and I don't see us being any different to that," he said. "We've got a big game on Monday against Surrey, and then a four-day game starting on Tuesday, so we don't really have a lot of time. We've got to get back up and get on with the game.
"I've just got to manage my ankle as best I can. It's a little bit sore and we've got a hard week. It gets sore after a few hard days. I'm going to see how I pull up – and that's the management side of it.
"If I rock up on Monday and it's really sore, I might not play. But I'll be doing my best to play every game possible."
christian literary agents literary agents christian staff appreciation certificate
No comments:
Post a Comment