Champions League Twenty20: Somerset beat Auckland by four wickets

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Auckland Aces were knocked out of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament after they suffered a four-wicket defeat against Somerset in a nail-biting qualifying match here today.

Electing to bat, Auckland could never recover from their disastrous start where they lost three wickets for 14 runs in 3.1 overs and were restricted by Somerset to 125 for seven in their stipulated 20 overs.

Lou Vincent provided some resistance with an unbeaten run-a-ball 47, laced with three fours and a six, but with wickets tumbling on the other hand, he could do very little.

Somerset batsmen then achieved the target in the last ball of the match to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the main tournament. They will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in a virtual knock-out tomorrow.

Chasing 126 to win, Somerset opener Chris Jones blasted three quick fours before a stunning catch at point by Jimmy Adams off Kyle Mills ended his innings.

RE van der Merwe and Peter Trego then took Somerset across the fifty mark but Ronnie Hira struck in the ninth over, removing the former to reduce them to 52 for two.

Michael Bates then struck twice in two balls, dismissing Trego and Nick Compton, as all of sudden Somerset slipped to 54 for four in 9.2 overs.

Fifteen balls later, Chris Martin removed Arul Suppiah (3) as Somerset lost half their side, still needing 62 off 49 balls.

James Hildreth and Steve Snell then joined hands and stitched 61 runs off 48 balls to take Somerset on the threshold of victory.

Hildreth was run-out in the second last delivery of their innings when he tried to steal an extra run but it didn't have any bearing on the results as next batsman Thomas scored the winning runs in the last ball of the match.