92 for Tom but Somerset suffer defeat in Metro Bank One Day Cup opener
Somerset began the 2026 Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign with a four-wicket defeat against Notts Outlaws at the John Fretwell Sports Complex.
The hosts victory was built around half-centuries from skipper Haseeb Hameed (66 off 79 balls) and Freddie McCann, whose 70 from 82 was a List A career-best, as they overhauled Somerset’s 258 for nine, reaching 259 for six with 32 balls to spare.
Somerset, semi-finalists in 2025, lost a wicket to the fifth delivery of the match as Brett Hutton had Archie Vaughan caught behind yet at 160 for two after 35 overs the visitors looked set for a total above 300. Unfortunately, they lost their last six wickets for 27 before Migael Pretorius took four for 41 with the ball.
Tom Lammonby, who made two hundreds in this competition last year, began his campaign with a nicely-crafted 92 from 109 balls and Savin Perera hit 58 from 84 on his debut, but Somerset needed to make more of their 102-run partnership. Notts left-arm spinner Joe Pocklington picked up three for 28.
Perera’s driving on the off side was pleasing on the eye, with eight boundaries, before off-spinner McCann dismissed him with a sharp return catch.
Lammonby built patiently, reaching 50 from 80 balls before pushing the accelerator. He was out searching for a 10th boundary, a pull shot finding a fielder behind square.
Josh Thomas (27 from 35), Johnny Connell, who marked his senior debut with 24 from 24, and Kian Roberts – later helped off after suffering an injury in the field – all met similar fates as they sought to up the scoring rate.
Pocklington, who had Connell caught at long-off, bowled Pretorius and had Jack Leach stumped. Until 18-year-old wicketkeeper Ben Church, the third of Somerset’s trio of debutants, found the rope off the last ball of the innings, the last 10 overs yielded only one four.
Notts, who have suffered only three defeats on this ground, were 61 for one from 10 in reply. They lost Ben Slater (25 off 18) when he cut ex-Trent Bridge team-mate Jake Ball to backward point. Ball – once a Welbeck player – captained Somerset, with Lewis Goldsworthy ruled out by injury.
Dropped on 37 and 51, McCann reverse-swept Leach for consecutive fours before a short delivery from Pretorius saw him miscue to mid-off.
Pretorius induced a Notts wobble by removing Kyle Verreynne, the South African Test ‘keeper making his Notts List A debut, Hameed, who skyed on to mid-on, and Pocklington caught behind first ball.
But Lyndon James, dropped on two, countered with a flurry of boundaries to seal the win.
At the end of the match, Somerset skipper, Jake Ball said: Somerset’s Jake Ball said: “We were a little bit short with the bat. I think when it started to get a little bit close at the end, if we’d had 20 or 30 more runs we could have put a bit more pressure on than we did. I’m pretty pleased with the way the bowlers kept going and for Migael to pick up four wickets was really important in that.
“Even though we didn’t get the result, to come here, to my old club and to be able to captain was something I will cherish for a long time.
“We’ll take a lot of learnings from this. I think Notts are going to be up there challenging to win this competition so it is a good marker for us. We’ve got a few new faces in the side, three guys making their debuts who all did well, especially Sav Perera, and we pushed them quite hard at the end. If we can just tighten up in a few areas and start to gel together as a team, there’s no reason why we can’t be up there at the back end of the competition as well.”
