Royal London One-Day Cup South Group

Somerset 131-2 beat Surrey 129 by eight wickets

SOMERSET kicked off their Royal London One-Day Cup campaign with a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Surrey at The Oval.

Craig Overton took 4-27 - with England national selector Ed Smith watching on -before Johann Myburgh's unbeaten 75 led the successful chase, which was completed with 28.3 overs to spare in a surprinsgly one-sided encounter.

Somerset won the toss and opted to field, a decision which was immediately vindicated as they reduced their visitors to 12-3 inside four overs.

Debutant Will Jacks was first to go, chipping Craig Overton to Roelof van der Merwe at cover having made just three.

Lewis Gregory then claimed the prize scalp of former teammate Dean Elgar, who made at least 50 in every match he played for Somerset in this competition last year; the South African made just one on this occasion before he miscued a drive to Johann Myburgh at backward point.

Overton then had Ollie Pope caught at mid-off for a duck, Max Waller diving forward to claim a well-taken catch, but Ben Foakes looked in good touch as he struck several boundaries early in his innings.

He became the final victim in Overton's excellent early spell of 3-16, edging behind on 21, and when Rory Burns (17) and Scott Borthwick (0) had followed him back to the pavilion - the latter to a comedy run out with both batsmen ending at the same end - Surrey were 58-6.

Peter Trego ensured there was no let-up, adding the scalp of Rikki Clarke to that of Burns as the veteran pulled straight to Overton on the deep mid-wicket boundary.

Trego ended with excellent figures of 2-23 from 10 accurate overs, while Gregory returned to have Curran (30) caught behind and Tim Groenewald got in on the act by pinning Gareth Batty lbw.

Jade Dernbach hit the only six of the innings before he was the last wicket to fall, looping a simple catch up to James Hildreth at cover, to leave Somerset a modest target.

It was one they chased with ease, despite losing Steve Davies (12) and Peter Trego (0) with the score on 35.

James Hildreth joined Johann Myburgh and the pair took Somerset home, ending with 35 and 75 respectively.

Both found the boundary at will, Myburgh simply carrying on from where he left off in white-ball cricket last season and Hildreth showing that the deft approach can also be successful in these formats.

Afterwards, Somerset captain Tom Abell said: "This was a really good performance, and the result reflects that. To bowl them out for 120-odd was a great effort because although the pitch was a little bit slow there was not a large amount of lateral movement.

"Our bowlers were well backed up in the field and then Johann Myburgh was fantastic up top with the bat.

"We are in a very exciting group and we are looking forward to the next month."