Somerset County Cricket Club in 2009
Consistency was also key for Somerset's success in one-day cricket, where they remained unbeaten in the group stage of the Friends Provident Trophy, but were eliminated in the first knock-out round, and finished runners-up by one point in the NatWest Pro40.
David Foot, writing in Wisden, claimed that too many of the Somerset batsmen had "lost their way" in one-day cricket, as they narrowly avoided relegation in the NatWest Pro40, and were eliminated in the Friends Provident Trophy.
[4] Somerset promoted four players from their academy for the 2009 season, giving contracts to Jos Buttler, Adam Dibble, Chris Jones and James Burke.
[5] Bob Willis, writing in The Guardian, shared this view, and predicted that Somerset would also be hindered by the difficulty of getting 20 wickets at home, resulting in too many draws.
Although Marcus Trescothick had a season which David Foot described as "imperiously assured",[3] Somerset failed to win enough matches to pose a real challenge in the 2009 County Championship.
[48] In contrast to the strong batting line-up, Foot suggested that Somerset "lacked a seam bowler to compensate for Andy Caddick's withdrawal".
[54] Somerset lacked an effective spin bowler in 2009 following the departure of Ian Blackwell the previous season, and the spinners combined only claimed 31 wickets, bowling less balls between them than Willoughby alone.
After Durham scored 543 in their first innings, Somerset collapsed to 69 all out in reply; only Langer passed 20 runs, while six of his batting colleagues made ducks.
Somerset's third match resulted in their only loss of the County Championship season,[57] coming against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge; and at the end of May, they were second bottom in the first division.
During the Worcestershire match, Langer's first innings 107 took him past Sir Donald Bradman's total of 28,067 first-class runs to become the highest-scoring Australian batsman.
[62] Successive draws against Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Sussex and Hampshire meant that Somerset travelled to Durham requiring a victory to maintain any realistic hopes of claiming the County Championship title.
In the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy, the first one-day competition in the English domestic calendar, Somerset showed a marked improvement from the previous season.
They were described by Steve James, writing in Wisden, as "the most impressive qualifiers" from the group stage, and both Trescothick and Kieswetter were praised for their batting form.
A fourth-wicket partnership of 167, dominated by powerful hitting from Kieswetter in which he scored a "superb century" according to ESPNcricinfo's Andrew McGlashan,[77] helped Somerset to recover to make 285/8, but Sussex chased the total down in the final over to eliminate the home side.
[88] Four Somerset batsmen scored over 300 runs in the tournament (Trescothick, 476; Kieswetter, 395; de Bruyn, 388; Hildreth, 313), more than any other county except eventual winners Hampshire.
[90] Key: Pld = Played, W = Wins, T = Ties, L = Losses, NR = No result, Pts = Points, NRR = Net run rate.
Somerset finished as runners-up to Sussex in the 2009 Twenty20 Cup,[98] having reached Finals Day in what captain Justin Langer described as "bizarre" fashion.
[112] Bad weather meant that no play was possible on either the Tuesday or Wednesday, as a result of which the teams requested special dispensation from the ECB for an additional reserve day on the Thursday, which was granted.
Economical bowling from Thomas and Willoughby, as well as the early wickets of Joe Denly and Martin van Jaarsveld, helped to limit Kent to 145/5.
A partnership of 41 between de Bruyn and Trego steadied Somerset for a time, but when the pair were dismissed in subsequent overs, their team collapsed from 104/4 to 109 all out.
[n 5] The county's bowling relied heavily on medium pace, a fact which cricket writer Scyld Berry suggested was exposed in the final.
[121] Key: Pld = Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, NR = No result, Pts = Points, NRR = Net run rate.
Having been put in to bat at Taunton, each of Somerset's top six batsman reached double figures, but none of them managed to pass 50 and the home side were eventually all out for 205.
News filtered through to the County Ground during their final match, against Durham, that leaders Sussex had lost to Worcestershire, meaning that a win against the north-eastern team would guarantee Somerset the title.
[128] Three of Somerset's bowlers claimed ten or more wickets in the competition (Ben Phillips, 14; Alfonso Thomas, 13; Charl Willoughby, 11), more than any other county in Division One.
[129] Key: Pld = Played, W = Wins, T = Ties, L = Losses, NR = No result, Pts = Points, NRR = Net run rate.
[147] Somerset progressed to the second round of the competition after Trinidad and Tobago beat Deccan in the final group match, but lost Trescothick, who flew home after a recurrence of his illness.
[149] Key: Pld = Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, NR = No result, Pts = Points, NRR = Net run rate.
Wicket-keeper Carl Gazzard also announced his retirement at the end of the season aged 27, having lost his place in the Somerset side to Craig Kieswetter.
[163] Andy Nash, the Somerset chairman, highlighted the catering department and match-day income as being particularly successful in 2009, with both areas exceeding £1 million in revenue during the year.
