"IT'S not the result that we wanted," admitted Somerset captain Ben Green, after Cornwall pulled off an unexpected five-wicket victory at the Cooper Associates County Ground on Tuesday.
The National County fixture was designed to prepare Somerset for their Royal London One-Day Cup defence, but it was the visitors who came away with the win thanks to a captain's innings of 93* from Scott Harvey.
Somerset are without nine players - Tom Abell, Tom Banton, Marchant de Lange, Lewis Gregory, Tom Lammonby, Craig Overton, Will Smeed, Roelof van der Merwe and Max Waller - for the 50-over competition (which starts this coming weekend) due to The Hundred, and so opportunities were offered to a number of young players in this warm-up match.
Kasey Aldridge, Jamie Baird, Sonny Baker, Ned Leonard, George Thomas and Sam Young took their place in the side, alongside more established players in One-Day Cup skipper Green, George Bartlett, Eddie Byrom, Lewis Goldsworthy and Jack Leach.
Opting to bat first, Somerset had 38 on the board when Byrom edged Rob Mutch (4-30) to Charlie Kent and departed for 13.
And 38-0 became 39-2 when Young (23) fell to Ben Ellis, and Bartlett's departure for 18 left the hosts on 62-3.
Goldworthy and Taunton St Andrews Cricket Club player Thomas rebuilt with a 98-run stand for the fourth wicket, however.
Goldworthy made 59 off 80 balls and Thomas 68 off 53, to take their side up to 160.
With Green adding 32 and Aldridge 21, Somerset were all out for 260, from 48.4 overs.
Cornwall openers Oliver Westbury (26) and Kent (60) put on 77 for the first wicket, with the breakthrough coming after Leach was brought into the attack.
The England spinner struck with his third delivery, having Westbury caught by Goldsworthy, and Kent followed when Bartlett took a catch off Baker's bowling.
The visitors were 180-4 when Kian Burns (9) and Paul Smith (1) fell, but Scott Kellow added a rapid 28 before skying one off the bowling of Aldridge (2-54).
Harvey would not be moved, though, as he and Tom Sturgess (13*) got their team over the finish line with 3.4 overs to spare.
Green said afterwards: "Obviously, it’s not the result that we wanted.
"Cornwall played really well today and we are going to have to learn from this.
"Having said that, some of the younger guys will have gained some good experience and a few of the batters made starts.
"We just needed someone to push on and get the score closer to 300.
"George Thomas showed that he’s a good baller striker and hopefully he can carry on that form and keep scoring runs.
“There are certainly some lessons to be learned from this, but we will park it and move forward this week.
"We’ll be training hard and making sure that we’re ready for Derbyshire on Sunday.
"We were inconsistent today, but that’s to be expected.
"It’s our first 50-over game in a while and we’re coming off the back of a fairly busy schedule in the Blast and the Championship."
Somerset could welcome Jack Brooks, Josh Davey, Steve Davies and James Hildreth back into the team for the start of their One-Day Cup campaign, at home to Derbyshire at 2pm on Sunday.
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