Heavy defeat leaves Somerset hoping for a favour

Somerset skipper Justin Langer's career could have reached a premature end after the Sabres crashed to a heavy Champions League defeat.

The Australian veteran will retire from professional cricket after the Indian Twenty20 tournament and yesterday's 44-run loss to Trinidad and Tobago leaves Somerset in dire straits.

They must now hope the West Indian side can also beat Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers tomorrow to give them a realistic chance of progressing to the next stage.

Langer conceded: "We have made it a bit hard for ourselves but time will tell over the next few days.

"We are very disappointed. But Trinidad & Tobago played brilliantly – in all aspects of the game they beat us."

One of the key factors was that T&T scored 31 more runs than Somerset when the fielding restrictions were in force in the first six overs.

"We saw some footage of their top order and so in a sense we were expecting that," said Langer.

"It was quite fearless cricket – great Caribbean cricket that we have come to love for so long.

"It came off well and it was a good wicket and we just didn't play the conditions as well as we would have liked to."

Marcus Trescothick added: "Obviously the boys are all very disappointed and at the moment we feel we have let ourselves down especially when we compare it to Saturday's victory over the Deccan Chargers."

Somerset CCC had looked slight favourites at the halfway stage after limiting T&T to 150-9.

Paceman Charl Willoughby claimed three wickets for Somerset while spinners Max Waller and Arul Suppiah also impressed.

"Once the ball got older it started to slow up," said Willoughby. "We knew we had to vary the pace. We knew if we stuck to our disciplines we could restrict them.

"There was a bit more swing than Saturday against Deccan but they still took a liking to me."

Somerset were 106 all out off the final ball of their innings and Langer is now helpless to prevent his Indian summer being cut short.

"I hope Trinidad beat Deccan now," he said. "Everyone in India will hate me for saying that.

"It is such a great tournament and it is hard to take your eyes off the TV. It has been brilliant cricket but we will obviously be watching the other game a bit more closely."

After the drama of Saturday's one-wicket win, Somerset were brought crashing back to reality in Bangalore.

Trescothick was the first to go in the second over when he thin-edged Dwayne Bravo behind for three.

And Bravo then removed Craig Kieswetter when the wicketkeeper tried to drive on the up through the covers and holed out for four.

Langer was put out of his misery against spin in the next over when he lofted off-spinner Sherwin Ganga to backward square-leg for 15 to reduce Somerset to 28-3.

Chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed removed Arul Suppiah and Pete Trego as Zander de Bruyn was the only batsman to keep his head, finishing 43 not out.

Earlier, Somerset had lost the toss and were asked to bowl first. T&T raced to 43-0 before Somerset claimed four wickets in ten balls.

But West Indies wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin's run-a-ball 39 proved critical to reaching a more-than-ample score.