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Home  » Cricket » Somerset take on Diamond Eagles

Somerset take on Diamond Eagles

Source: PTI
October 15, 2009 17:17 IST
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Lacking in star power and coming off mixed results in the preliminary stage, England's Somerset and South African side Diamond Eagles go head to head in a League A encounter of the Champions League Twenty20's Super Eight stage.

Led by retired Australian Test opener Justin Langer, Somerset pulled off a sensational one-run win over Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers but lost to Caribbean side Trinidad and Tobago.

Somerset are lucky to be in the Super Eight as they would have been shown the door had Deccan not lost by three runs against Trinidad last night as Adam Gilchrist's men enjoyed a better net run rate.

The Eagles, on the other hand, were outplayed by New South Wales in their opening match before bouncing back to beat Sussex Sharks in a must-win match to take the last available berth in the super-eight stage from their group.

Both the teams lack big names and in Somerset's case, their tail-enders did better than the top-order batsmen, clinching the last-ball thriller against Deccan. 

A prolific Test opener, Langer has struggled to find form in Twenty20 and has come a cropper so far.

Their only otherwell-known batting face, retired England opener Marcus Trescothick is also yet to make any substantial contribution in the tournament.

Among the bowlers, pacer Alfonso Thomas played the all-rounder's role in the win against Deccan but apart from him, the team has not yet found any bowler capable enough of either containing or taking wickets.

Batting has been Eagles problem too and though captain Boeta Dippenaar had blamed it on a treacherous Feroze Shah Kotla track in the group stage matches, he would have no such excuse on the batting-friendly wicket.

Eagles don't have any big names in the line-up either and they are yet to click as a unit. The batting line-up hasn't made much of an impression although Ryan McLaren did play a good knock against Trinidad and Tobago.

The bowling has not been any better and the two teams' common weaknesses make it an even contest.

Somerset: Justin Langer (C), Omari Banks, Max Waller, Peter Trego, Arul Suppiah, Zander de Bruyn, Wes Durston, Craig Kieswetter, Charl Willoughby, Marcus Trescothick, Alfonso Thomas, Ben Philips, PS Jones, Jos Buttler, James Hildreth.

Eagles: Boeta Dippenaar (C), Ryan Bailey, Jandre Coetzee, Cornelius de Villiers, Dillon du Preez, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks, Alan Kruger, Adrian McLaren, Ryan McLaren, Victor Mpitsang, Rilee Rossouw, Thandi Tshabalala, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Morne van Wyk.

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