Royal London Cup wrap: Somerset, Warwickshire enter semis

Mahela Jayawardene hit 14 fours and two sixes during his knock © Cricaction

First quarterfinal: Somerset v Worcestershire

Mahela Jayawardene and Jim Allenby helped Somerset cruise to a nine-wicket win in the first quarterfinal of the Royal London One-Day Cup against Worcestershire at the County Ground in Taunton on Wednesday (August 17). 

Set a target of 211, Jayawardene (117 not out) and Allenby (81) added an unbeaten 118 runs for the opening wicket to push Worcestershire out of the game. The latter fell in the 34th over when he was caught off the bowling of Moeen Ali, but that was the only wicket that Worcestershire could manage. 

Earlier, Daryl Mitchell's decision to bat first didn't pay rich dividends as the batsmen failed to put a significant total on the board. Moeen (81) and Mitchell (64) made handy contributions but with no significant partnership flourishing, Worcestershire were left with a little less than what they would have desired. 

At one stage they were reduced to 42 for 3 before Moeen and Mitchell resurrected the innings with a 113-run stand. Both fell in quick succession to Peter Trego and Worcestershire failed to recover from twin blows. Joe Leach looked promising but his 18-ball stay, that yielded 20, was cut short when he was run out by Roelof van der Merwe. Worcestershire posted a sub-par total that was chased down with ease.

Brief scores: Worcestershire 210 in 42.5 overs (Moeen Ali 84, Daryl Mitchell 64; Peter Trego 3-33) lost to Somerset 214-1 in 36.5 overs (Mahela Jayawardena 117*, Jim Allenby 81) by nine wickets.

Second quarterfinal: Warwickshire v Essex

In a slightly more closely-contested quarterfinal fixture at Edgbaston on Wednesday (August 17), Warwickshire came out on top against Essex to advance to the semis. Jonathan Trott, the former England batsman, amassed a fine century, while Tim Ambrose, the captain of the side, and Laurie Evans made vital contributions to power the team to a challenging total of 283 for 7, despite the efforts of Graham Napier (3-60) and Ryan ten Doeschate (2-46).

Essex made a fine start to the chase as Nick Browne (39) and Tom Westley (61) started with a solid partnership but a middle-order collapse ensued, that saw the side fall from 75 for no wicket to 120 for 5. The spin duo of Jeeten Patel and Josh Posyden bamboozled the middle-order, leaving too much to do for Doeschate. To the Dutchman's credit, he fought hard with a gritty 52-ball 53, but there was a glaring lack of support at the other end. In the 43rd over, Patel dismissed Doeschate to end the Essex innings 70 short of the target.

Brief scores: Warwickshire 283/7 in 50 overs (Jonathan Trott 101, Laurie Evans 70, Tim Ambrose 60; Graham Napier 3-60) beat Essex 213 in 42.1 overs (Tom Westley 61, Ryan ten Doeschate 53; Jeeten Patel 3-32, Josh Posyden 3-46) by 70 runs