Stunning Sean Dickson launches Somerset in fifth straight Finals Day

The Taunton club looked down and out against Birmingham Bears until an inspired surge dragged them over the line in a tense quarter-final

ECB Reporters Network | 06/09/2025 at 21:38

Taunton: Birmingham Bears 190-6, Somerset 191-6- Somerset won by four wickets

Sean Dickson hammered a magnificent 71 off 26 balls to see Somerset through to T20 Blast Finals Day with a nerve-tingling four-wicket victory over Birmingham Bears at Taunton.

The visitors posted 190 for 6 after winning the toss, Alex Davies top-scoring with 71 off just 39 balls, with 13 fours.

But it took a stupendous knock from Dickson, who blasted five fours and six sixes, to see the home side to victory with just one ball to spare.

Bears looked set for a mammoth total when scoring 82 off the six-over power play. Rob Yates hit every ball of Riley Meredith's first over for four, while Davies took five boundaries off the fifth over, sent down by Craig Overton.

Overton broke the partnership with the score on 39, but Davies then dominated a half-century stand with Dan Mousley, who fell for 12, bowled by Lewis Gregory.

At the halfway stage, Bears had 119 on the board, Davies having reached a 24-ball half-century after being dropped in the deep on 44 by Will Smeed off Jake Ball. But when he fell in the 12th over, bowled by Green attempting a ramp shot, which had served him well, it signalled a turning point.

Green and Gregory bowled economically, along with left-arm spinner Lewis Goldsworthy, as three more wickets fell and the innings ended without a single six having been hit.

Set a below-par target, Somerset hit the first maximum of the game when Tom Kohler-Cadmore hammered George Garton over mid-wicket in the third over. Will Smeed was caught off a top-edged pull with the score on 28 in the next over off Richard Gleeson.

Wickets came at regular intervals. Kohler-Cadmore, on 32, drove a straightforward catch to long-on off Oliver Hannon-Dalby, James Rew was dropped at short fine leg off Garton, but departed for 11 and Abell, who went to fifty off 39 balls, with five fours and six, perished soon afterwards, caught at long-off skying a ball from Briggs.

And when Hannon-Dalby accounted for both Gregory and Green in the same 18^th over, a Bears victory looked to be within their grasp.

But Dickson had other ideas. He reached his half-century in 19 balls and, with Somerset requiring 19 off the last bowled by Barnard, struck two sixes and a four to cap a memorable innings and send Taunton wild.