Surrey victors in the CB40 final as Somerset fail again

Surrey's players start the celebrations on the Lord's balcony after completing their comfortable CB40 final win over Somerset

Rory Hamilton-Brown led from the front as Surrey picked up their first silverware in eight years at Lord's.

The Surrey skipper hit a matchwinning 78 to see his side to a five-wicket CB40 final win over Somerset.

It was a fifth straight cup final defeat for perennial runners-up Somerset, who made just 214, owing even that mostly to Jos Buttler's 86.

Despite three rain breaks, Surrey then reached their revised target of 186 in 30 overs with 15 balls to spare.

Surrey had been without a trophy since their Pro 40/Twenty20 double-winning year of 2003.

But, while Somerset had last claimed silverware more recently, the Twenty20 in 2005, they had suffered four successive runners-up medals in finals (in last year's CB40 against Warwickshire, as well as three successive Twenty20 final defeats), not to mention last summer's final-day County Championship near miss.

Marcus Trescothick's men did at least have history on their side.

The two counties had met once before in a Lord's final, back in Somerset's great days in 1981 when five wickets for Joel Garner, a Viv Richards century and a quickfire 37 not out from Ian Botham - just five days after his famous heroics at Headingley - helped the Cider boys to the Benson & Hedges Cup with more than 10 overs to spare.

But, having won the toss and opted to bat, and with Trescothick passed fit to play, still nursing an ankle injury, a repeat of 30 years ago never looked on the cards from early on.

None of Somerset's top six got decent starts against a spin-based attack, in which England's latest South African recruit, Jade Dernbach, played the starring role, taking 4-30.

Hamilton-Brown goes for the aerial route in his matchwinning innings

Had it not been for Buttler's late assault, hitting two sixes and seven fours in his 86 off 72 balls, Somerset would have not had any sort of total to defend.

As it was, when Buttler was last out to become Dernbach's fourth victim from the second ball of the final over, Somerset had at least taken their total past 200.

Somerset needed early wickets to stand any chance. And, although Murali Kartik crucially dropped Hamilton-Brown before he had scored, they made two breakthroughs around two brief rain breaks, Steve Kirby snaring Steven Davies before getting Jason Roy caught behind.

At 46-2 off seven overs, rain then forced the two sides off again, at which point the weather had caused so much delay that Duckworth/Lewis came into the equation.

Somerset's revised target was 186 off 30 overs, meaning another 140 needed off 23 at pretty much six an over.

Although Arul Suppiah had Tom Maynard caught behind, Chris Schofield (26) helped Hamilton-Brown put on 58 for the fourth wicket.

Just when this pair looked to be cruising home, Schofield slammed it straight to Trescothick before Hamilton-Brown was run out by a direct hit from Buttler at mid-on.

But Surrey, ironically now orchestrated from on high by former Somerset chief executive Richard Gould who left Taunton for The Oval in March, were to have the final say.

Matt Spriegel (24no) and Zander de Bruyn (17no) saw their side home in the 28th over - to complete a memorable week for the Brown Caps, just three days after winning promotion back to the top flight in the County Championship.

POST-MATCH VIEWS

Surrey skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"This feels pretty good. Winning a trophy is a very special moment and it hasn't quite sunk in yet. I should have a decent stab at a five-month long celebration.

"But we're still a young side and I hope our best days are still ahead of us and that we can prove a force to be reckoned with.

"I don't care who gets the runs. I'm just glad we've won a trophy. But, if I hadn't got a score, then someone else would have done.

"We took wickets at crucial times when they batted and, in the end, after all the rain interruptions, we chased it down well."

Somerset skipper Marcus Trescothick told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"Jos Buttler's knock was class, the sort you'd expect from somebody a bit older. He showed how good he can be.

"I always thought we were under par, maybe 20 short. And, as it was a fairly tough wicket, we were still in with a chance.

"But we simply didn't have enough runs on the board and Rory Hamilton-Brown batted well."