Saturday, September 1, 2001
by Andrew Miller Keith Parsons was the hero with bat and ball as Somerset outlasted Leicestershire in an entertaining C&G Final at Lord's. Some lusty blows from England bowlers old and new - Phillip DeFreitas and Jimmy Ormond – took the game into the final overs, but an untimely loss of wickets in the Leicestershire middle-order, and a dreadful loss of form from their opening bowler Scott Boswell, gave Somerset their first trophy for 18 years.

Perhaps fearful of what Shahid Afridi might do if Leicestershire batted first, Somerset captain Jamie Cox broke with tradition and elected to bat. His decision was soon justified, as Marcus Trescothick and Peter Bowler latched onto an extraordinarily wayward burst from Boswell, whose second over contained no fewer than eight wides. Ironically, Boswell had been preferred to that habitual loose-cannon Devon Malcolm, as Leicestershire plumped for accuracy over experience. In the event they got neither.

Trescothick fell for a run-a-ball 18, aiming one heave too many at Ormond, but Cox and Bowler survived some early alarms to pass the 100 mark. Afridi though couldn't stay out of the limelight for long, and in the space of 15 deliveries he altered the face of the innings.

Peter Bowler, Ian Blackwell and Jamie Cox himself were all bowled by the Pakistani's skimming top-spinners, and at 150-4 after 32 overs Leicestershire were back in the reckoning. Michael Burns was then well held in the deep by Darren Maddy, but with Boswell's confidence shattered, Vince Wells was forced to overwork his second-stringers. Parsons and Turner grew in confidence as Leicestershire's attack wilted, and when Parsons smacked consecutive sixes off the final two balls of the innings, the momentum was all with Somerset.

A big knock was needed from Afridi, and he knew it. Twenty runs from his first nine deliveries was well up there with his 180% strike-rate in county one-day cricket, but the tenth ended up in the wicketkeeper's gloves after a miscued yahoo. Partner Trevor Ward had yet to get off the mark at this stage, but he and Darren Maddy batted sensibly to take Leicestershire to 66-1 at the 15 over mark.

It took an absolute pearler from Keith Parsons – seaming the ball up the slope – to dislodge Ward for a hard-earned 54, and he struck again six balls later to remove Wells. From there, Leicestershire battled hard to keep up with the asking rate, but meaningful partnerships were thin on the ground, the best being a quickfire 31 between DeFreitas and Ormond that briefly revived hopes of a showcase finish. It was left to Steffan Jones - who prepared for this season by converting his garage into a gymnasium – to deliver the coup de grace, castling the hapless Boswell as Somerset captured their first trophy since 1983.

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