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Cox propels Somerset to new heights

Somerset 315-8 Innings Complete v Surrey 195 - Somerset beat Surrey by 120 runs

For 12 years Somerset have waited to put the seal of justification upon their revolution. It was in the winter of 1986-87 that the reform movement clashed with Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Ian Botham and the three great sons departed amid the fiercest acrimony that county cricket has known.

The stables were cleansed of decadence but there was nothing to show for it before this NatWest Trophy semi-final. The incoming players were worthy but unspectacular, hard-working but mid-table. The legends might have taken Somerset to the bottom of the championship, yet they were still good enough to win a one-day prize or two.

Twelve years therefore it has taken to justify the purges, and the appointment of an Australian who had no part in or indeed much knowledge of them. Jamie Cox came from Tasmania to captain Somerset and to instil the best of Australian habits. He has proved to be that long-missing element which has turned the worthy into winners again.

Cox scored 114 from 113 balls to set Surrey a formidable total to chase. He is a compact and complete batsman as the man who is usually the highest scorer in each year's Sheffield Shield ought to be. His driving was so powerful that one shot nearly sent Mark Butcher, at short-extra, to the boundary in addition to the ball, while another drive gave the opener a damaged thumb to worry about as well as his England place.

It was not exactly like old times, however, at the County Ground. The market across the road was still loud with cattle on the move before the start of play, and the Quantocks have not yet been taken over for housing estates. But two new buildings, the pavilion and the Ian Botham Stand, have appeared since the revolution, and Somerset's crowd has changed as well. The younger members who roared on Viv, Joel and Beefy with cheers and cider have aged and not been replaced. The atmosphere yesterday, though the ground was chock-a-block, was altogether less animated than in the heyday around 1980.

Their earnestness was also a contrast to Surrey's approach. With a side packed with four England captains and loads of other internationals, they rode into town like city chaps come to buy up a farmhouse or two for a weekend retreat. The approach did not serve them well in the field from the moment Cox put them under pressure with his running between the wickets.

Saqlain Mushtaq made two misfields in the first three overs down at fine-leg to Cox, which set too much of a tone for Surrey's display in the field. The straight boundaries at Taunton are always hard to defend. Nevertheless Surrey's bowling was poor apart from Saqlain, and their fielding poor, too, apart from Ali Brown and their wicketkeeper, Alec Stewart.

Surrey did not select wisely either by including an eighth batsman in Jason Ratcliffe and no third seamer, especially as they chose to bowl first when the pitch was damp. Cox and Peter Bowler got away to a semi-flyer, 67 off the first 13 overs, and thereafter Surrey could not hit upon any combination of bowlers to impose restraint, other than their Pakistani master-spinner.

There was no margin for error on the slow pitch which had not had enough rolling since the storms of earlier in the week to have any bone in it, yet Surrey's bowlers were guilty of offering plenty. Even Saqlain had a less than perfect day as, apart from his misfielding, he bowled a beamer which had to be no-balled, and was convicted of wandering outside the semi-circles when he should have been inside, causing another no-ball to be added to the total of 35 extras.

Piran Holloway, the batsman of the season in one-day domestic cricket, out-sparkled Cox when he came in with his range of left-handed strokes. After they had been dismissed though, the rest of Somerset's batting improvised a shade too much, especially with the sweep, and Surrey came into the game at last. Saqlain's flight, as he wobbled the ball in a blustery cross-wind, completely defeated Bowler and Rob Turner.

Butcher gave Surrey the brisk beginning they needed in reply, driving sweetly without sign of pain, only to give his wicket away again through an unforced error. He pulled at Andy Caddick, top-edged and was caught by mid-on running round to midwicket, but the applause was nothing compared to the roar when Stewart, more than half-forward though not greatly so, was given leg-before. If Caddick's delight at the prospect of reaching a Lord's final was unconfined, the thought that Stewart was captain when he was out of the England side may have been a consideration too.

In the second semi-final today Gloucestershire will be trying to defeat Yorkshire for the fourth time this season in one-day cricket, and the Bristol wicket, slow and used, is expected to suit their two off-spinners Jeremy Snape and Martyn Ball. Gloucestershire, however, have sagged since their Super Cup victory, as if sated by winning a prize at last.

The hunger of their opponents remains. They are the only county to have endured a feud as vicious as Somerset's, and for longer, and have waited 12 years since their last success.