SOMERSET sealed their place in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals on Friday night, as they hammered Glamorgan by 74 runs at Sophia Gardens.
New Zealand run machine Devon Conway batted throughout the visitors' 20 overs for an unbeaten 70 from 52 balls as Glamorgan’s bowlers struggled at both ends of the innings.
In between, Roman Walker impressed with figures of 3-15 from his four overs but Glamorgan’s batsman were nowhere near as good, as they were bowled out for just 107.
Somerset - without England pair Lewis Gregory and Tom Banton after they were both named in the England T20 squad to face Pakistan - won the toss and unsurprisingly chose to bat on a stunning evening in the Welsh capital.
Conway struck two leg-side boundaries from Andrew Salter’s first over, but Glamorgan’s poor bowling gave their opponents a flying start.
Dan Douthwaite’s first over went for 16 and included a ball which went for five wides; two more wides and a six struck by Steve Davies followed.
Timm van der Gugten did dismiss Davies (22), caught behind by Chris Cooke, but it was a rare good delivery as Glamorgan strayed on to leg stump far too frequently.
Somerset were 55-1 after six overs and 84-2 at the halfway stage, but Walker dragged Glamorgan back into it with the wickets of Will Smeed (7) and James Hildreth (10).
Lewis Goldsworthy (9) smashed Marnus Labuschagne for six down the ground, but Walker showed him how it should be done with his third wicket of a superb spell.
Conway watched the wickets fall at the other end until Tom Lammonby joined him and cracked Van der Gugten for four, four and six from the first three balls of the 17th over.
Conway went past 50 and then joined in the fun by hitting the struggling Douthwaite for six, although the Glamorgan seamer did dismiss Lammonby (34) thanks to a smart Salter catch.
Roelof van der Merwe contributed 10* alongside Conway as Somerset finished with 181-5.
Kiran Carlson (6) smashed Jack Leach for six off the second ball of Glamorgan’s response but was caught and bowled by the England spinner on the fourth.
Colin Ingram (19) carted a six over mid-wicket but he too went caught and bowled, this time at the hands of Craig Overton, and Glamorgan were 36-2 after the first powerplay.
David Lloyd (11) hit Goldsworthy’s first ball to Overton at cover and it left Labuschagne and Billy Root needing 122 from the final 10 overs.
Labuschagne (18) pulled Marchant de Lange to the mid-wicket boundary where Van der Merwe took a stunning catch, and from there the Welsh side folded like a pack of cards.
Somerset’s spinners were far too good, with Goldsworthy finishing with 3-14 and Van der Merwe 3-20.
Somerset captain Craig Overton said afterwards: “It was our most complete T20 performance of the season.
"With the way we batted we capitalised in the last four overs to get to 181, and with our three spinners we managed to squeeze them in the middle overs.
"Devon Conway has played beautifully for us since he’s been here and he did it again tonight.
"After the first few games [of this season's Vitality Blast] we’d have bitten your hand off for a quarter-final spot.
"If we beat Gloucestershire [on Sunday] we’ll get a home quarter-final and knock them out, which I’m sure will please the Somerset fans.
"Hopefully we can get a full-strength side out for the quarter-final.
"It was nice for me to play the three games with England, but it’s also massive for us to get a quarter-final spot. We are going in the right direction.”
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