A near capacity crowd of 5,500 for this day night NUL match were treated to a thrilling encounter between relegation strugglers Somerset Sabres and Nottingham Outlaws at the County Ground in Taunton.

Another exhibition of attacking batting from Kevin Pietersen, who picked up where he had left off the previous day added yet more misery to the Sabres NUL relegation plight as they slid to a second defeat at the hands of the Outlaws.

The South African born, ECB qualified twenty two year old effectively put the game beyond a Sabres team who were desperate to gain revenge for their reverse at Trent Bridge 24 hours earlier.

When Pietersen came to the wicket Nottinghamshire were 37 for 2. By the time he departed 36 overs later he had scored 147 and the Outlaws were 291 for 6.

Whilst Pietersen was at the wicket he shared in a fourth wicket stand of 158 with Balal Shafyat (66) followed by a fifth wicket stand of 60 with Chris Read (21) until he eventually succumbed in the final over when he was caught by a grateful Simon Francis at long on from the bowling of Mike Burns. In all he had faced 101 balls, hit 5x6's and 16x4's in a breathtaking display.

For Somerset the pick of the bowlers was Richard Johnson who ended with 3 for 41 from his 9 overs.

Facing a daunting 297 for victory the Sabres got off to the worst of starts when they lost Peter Bowler to the third ball of the innings.

Pinch hitter Johnson struck some lusty blows, until with the score on 34 he lost his partner Jamie Cox for 2. Mike Burns followed next ball, and then one run later Johnson himself was bowled by David Lucas for 25, and the Sabres were in dire trouble at 35 for 4.

Ian Blackwell, who has not enjoyed the best of form in his last few innings smote a quickfire 31 to cheer the crowd, but after three successive boundaries he was bowled by Lucas, and the Sabres found themselves 80 for 5.

Keith Parsons, who had shared the fifth wicket partnership of 45 with Blackwell now started to take on the attacking role, and in Matthew Wood found a very willing ally to support him.

Parsons brought up the hundred in the fourteenth over,his own fifty seven overs later and then with the last ball of the twenty third over the Sabres one hundred and fifty.

All the while that he remained at the wicket the Sabres realistic hopes of salvaging a victory remained intact, but after adding 91 with Wood, Parsons was adjudged LBW to Stephen Randall for 73 and Somerset were once again on the backfoot.

Nine runs later Turner became another of Randall's victims, which brought Keith Dutch to the wicket. He quickly warmed to the task and started to show the kind of form that won him the Man of the Match award in the C and G semi final last year.

Meanwhile his partner Wood reached his fifty in the 36th over, by which time the Sabres required 74 runs to win off nine overs.

Next ball however Dutch (18) hit Franks hard to long off where Logan took the catch, and the Sabres were once again struggling at 225 for 8.

A glimmer of hope remained until Matt Wood was bowled by Paul Franks for 61 , followed shortly afterwards by Steffan Jones and the Sabres were all out for 237 to give the Outlaws victory by 62 runs.

Immediately after the end of the game Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "Of course this was a major disappointment to us all. Once again chasing a large total we lost early wickets which in the end proved crucial."

He continued: "We put together some partnerships but not early on and when we did we were always short of wickets. Now we have just five NUL games left so we will just keep on going and try to win them all."

The coach continued: "The lads are going to be hugely disappointed and they will be hurting after this home defeat. But we can't dwell on that. We have to pick ourselves up and focus our attention on the county championship match that starts here on Wednesday."

© Somerset CCC