Wellington continue to go great guns in their competitive T20 games at this time and made it three such wins in the space of four days when they progressed into the Second Round of the Somerset Cricket Board’s Major Knockout Cup following this very acceptable seven wicket win over WEPL Premier Two (Bristol and Somerset) Division club Taunton in what was the second meeting of the two sides in under a month following a pre-season match back in April.

Luke Desave won a third toss in a row in this format and chose to bowl first and he was not let down by his bowlers as Ian Hewson and Will Derrick formed a formidable opening offering for Wellington as they reduced Taunton to 23-4 with decisive and potent seam bowling.

There was a rally from Taunton’s middle order as former Wellington player Grant Davey made 28 and in the latter overs Southend hit two mighty sixes, but Wellington would need 106 to win as Hewson’s 2-15 in four overs and Derrick’s 3-13 in four overs as well as wickets for Arron Campbell and Jack Beal made the Red and Blacks favourite with safe catching from Lewis Sparks (three) and Ian Hewson (two) complementing a fine effort with the ball.

Having not batted as they would have liked Taunton threw everything they had at Wellington and to this end Gore and Southend were not afraid to use pace and bounce as part of their strategy.

Kayden Hine dealt with it well and crafted a fine knock of 38 taking three fours in one over off of change bowler Diamond as Wellington put together a good reply.

Alex Sparks and Luke Desave came together with the score at 73-3 in 13 overs and guided their side to a home draw with Taunton Deane, who play at the same league level as Taunton, with solid knocks of 25no and 24no respectively.

This game had been brought forward from its planned ‘week commencing’ slot and the game with the Deane is set for the week commencing Monday 12th June and sits alongside a whole raft of competitive T20 competitions that Wellington has a good interest in still.

What they need to do is to transfer this momentum to their WEPL Somerset Division schedule and if this can be achieved then progress up that table won’t be far away.