Simon Harmer, fresh from one heck of a day out at Saturday’s T20 Blast Finals Day with maiden champions Essex, is expecting Somerset to sail close to the wind when it comes to their pitch preparation for the County Championship title showdown at Taunton, beginning on Monday.
Second-placed Somerset are 12 points behind Essex and need to win to claim their first four-day crown. The weather forecast is not favourable across the final week of the summer, meaning Harmer and company “hold all the cards”, as the excellent South African off-spinner described it, in their attempt to become the first Blast and Championship double winners.
“It is interesting because Somerset are on their last warning for the [turning] pitches they’ve prepared over the last so many years,” he said, fresh from taking combined Finals Day figures of seven for 35 in wins against Derbyshire and Worcestershire. “I am pretty sure with the way the weather is forecast they need a result wicket, so I can guarantee it will turn and they will try to win in two days.
“We hold all the cards. We have played extremely well after losing the first game of the season [against Hampshire]. We are unbeaten at home where the wicket turns. We found a formula which works and hopefully we can take that to Taunton. Personally, I would like it to be four days with no weather and we can beat them and rightfully be named champions.”
Harmer leads the way with 78 wickets in this season’s Championship. Before Saturday, however, he had taken only 10 in T20. On a day he will never forget he returned a career-best four for 19 in an afternoon semi-final win over Derbyshire on an Edgbaston turner, defending 161.
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In the exhilarating final, against Moeen Ali’s defending champions, he claimed three for 16 before hitting a crucial 18 off seven balls when their pursuit of 146 had reached the crunch stage. Essex needed 12 off the last over from Wayne Parnell and two off the last ball, which Harmer steered for four. He was named man-of-the-match twice.The day started with Worcestershire beating Nottinghamshire in the morning semi-final when Notts managed to lose when needing 11 off two overs with eight wickets remaining.
Essex could hand the left-arm spinner Aron Nijjar a first four-day appearance of the season at Taunton after he played his first two Blast games of 2019 on Saturday. He claimed a career-best three wickets against Derbyshire.