Captain Billings leads from the front

Man-of-the-Match Sam Billings could not hide his delight after his side secured a place in the last eight with victory against Somerest, writes Mark Pennell of the ECB Reporters Network.

The captain said: “It was a very good result against a top team. We held our nerve at the end there and I’m a lot more relaxed now that it’s over and that we’ve qualified.

“It was getting closer, closer and it proves you’re never out of a game of T20 especially when you’ve a short boundary on one side and you’re playing on a cracking pitch.

“The lads closed it out brilliantly, especially Mitch Claydon. He’s shown coming back from injury what an important role he has to play in our bowling attack. He’s got an experienced head and did well hitting his yorker in those last few deliveries.

“I said in the huddle going out to field that this journey wasn’t over and that 230 wasn’t out of reach for them, especially with guys like Corey Anderson and Lewis Gregory in their middle order. They had a lot of power down the order and we took nothing for granted.

“We now need to arrive in Chelmsford in good heart ready to flick the switch and go again, because everyone at this club would love another win and a home quarter final to go with it.”

Somerset captain Gregory, who did well with bat and ball for his side  said: “What a game that was for a neutral. It was one of those games where the ball kept disappearing everywhere as both teams struggled to keep the batsmen under wraps.

“You have to believe you can chase down big totals like this. We’ve shown in this competition that we have the depth in our batting line up to go big and, after a good start, we gave it a good go.

“It was probably our last two overs with the ball that cost us. If we’d kept them down to 200 we’d have knocked them off in 17 overs.

“It was a belting pitch with two powerful batting line-ups, it was always going to be a high-scoring game and unfortunately we just came up short on the night, but I don’t want this defeat to detract from what has been an excellent campaign for us.”