Smeed to the fore as Blast campaign begins perfectly

WILL Smeed made light work of Essex’s meagre total on Sunday as 2024 runners-up Somerset made it two wins from two to begin their Men's Vitality Blast campaign.

- REPORT BY ALEX SMITH & ANDREW STOCKHAUSEN

T20 powerhouse Smeed whacked 81 in 54 balls to canter to an eight-wicket victory, as they chased 148 with 25 balls to spare.

Tom Lammonby also chipped in with 36, in a 96-run opening stand, as Somerset's men avenged the defeat their club-mates suffered in the Women’s Vitality Blast earlier in the day.

Matt Critchley and Dean Elgar's half-centuries merely sugar-coated a second successive heavy defeat for Essex - having lost their opener at Hampshire by 106 runs.

Somerset barely broke a sweat in their chase. Smeed set the tone with two boundaries in the first over of the innings, which Lammonby followed up with a loopy six over square leg.

The pair continued to pepper the boundaries and ease towards victory, until Critchley caught and bowled Lammonby, followed by Tom Kohler-Cadmore — slog-sweeping straight in the air.

But Smeed reached his 13th Somerset 50 in 26 balls, barely taking a risk in his swings through gaps. He took that up to 81 in 54 balls to get his side over the line with a single.