Eagles beat Somerset by five wickets

NEW DELHI - Diamond Eagles put up a commanding performance to outplay Somerset by five wickets in their Champions League Twenty20 Super Eight match here Friday.

Chasing a modest total of 133, the South African team crossed the target in 18.4 overs without any hiccups.

Eagles pacer Cornelius de Villiers took four wickets while opener Morne van Wyk (47) shone with the bat to see the team through. Ryan Bailey added 29 runs.

Put in to bat, the Somerset top order crumbled and were tottering at five for 52 before Wes Durston’s 57 and James Hildreth’s 31 gave some respectability to the score. They finished at 132 for eight in 20 overs.

Justin Langer’s decision to bat first backfired as De Villiers dismissed Craig Kieswetter, Arul Suppiah and Zander de Bruyn in his first two overs.

Then off-spinner Thandi Tshabalala removed Langer with his first delivery. Medium pacer Alan Kruger then held a brilliant return catch to dismiss Peter Trego.

Durston, who replaced Marcus Trescothick in the squad after the opener returned home following a recurrence of his stress-related illness, dropped the anchor thereafter.

He started slowly and then pulled Somerset out of trouble hitting 10 fours.

He stroked three consecutive boundaries off Ryan McLaren.

Hildreth and Durston put on 77 runs for the sixth wicket but after De Villiers removed Durston, Somerset could score only two runs in the remaining 10 balls.

Somerset got an early breakthrough when Charl Willoughby (2-29) dismissed Rilee Rossouw.

Adrian McLaren became the pacer’s second victim. Eagles’ captain, Boeta Dippenaar was also dismissed cheaply. But Van Wyk stood solid at the other end. The opener hit four fours and one six.