Goldsworthy steers Somerset into Cup Final

His century, coupled with a solid performance in the field by the hosts, ensured Somerset will face 2021 winners Glamorgan at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge on Sunday, September 22.

Put into bat by the Foxes, Somerset got off to a tentative start, amassing just 91 in 19 overs between openers Andy Umeed and George Thomas.

Thomas was the first to fall for 47, then Umeed followed eight overs later for 57, the first of two victims for Roman Walker.

However, Goldsworthy and team-mate James Rew dug deep initially before upping the tempo. The young duo took the score to 251 in the 44th over before Rew was superbly caught by a diving Louis Kimber at the mid-wicket boundary for 71.

Goldsworthy, however, was in fine touch and he duly claimed his century off 79 balls. Moments later, he would pass his previous career-best score of 111 with a pulled four off Chris Walker.

Aided by Sean Dickson and Ben Green in the latter stages, Somerset eventually posted a creditable total of 334 for four.

In reply, a rapid 33 off 28 balls from Sol Budinger gave the visitors a decent start to their chase, but the loss of skipper Lewis Hill, opener Ian Holland and Ajinkya Rahane for just 20 runs in 25 balls had them re-assessing matters quickly.

Leicestershire, though, were still very much in the fight and with Australian Peter Handscomb plundering runs to all four corners of the ground, they hauled themselves back into contention as the game headed towards a dramatic conclusion.

Handscomb and Ben Cox put on 131 in 20 overs, but as wickets started to tumble soon after, so the dream started to fade for the visitors.

Post-game, a delighted Goldsworthy summed up what was a perfect day for him and his team. He said: “At the start of the day, if you said we would get 340, I think we would have taken that, especially batting first. I thought we paced the innings very well, then closed things out well at the back end.”

With 119 runs scored in the last ten overs, Goldsworthy acknowledged that hard hitting had proved the difference between the two sides.

“Having wickets in hand really helped us,” he continued. “The way GT and Andy Umeed played at the top allowed us to have wickets in hand at the back end. Having batters like myself and James Rew there helped as well. It was nice to end the innings in that way, I feel like we played pretty well there, and then we bowled really well there at the end.”

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