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After hurting his ankle during their football warm-up on Wednesday, Tom Banton will not be able to play for Somerset on Vitality T20 Blast Finals Day. Somerset fans will have to wait with bated breath to find out.
During the first innings of Surrey’s County Championship match at Taunton, Banton had an X-ray and was ruled out with an ankle break. To find out the full nature of the injury, he will get an MRI on Thursday. With a runner, he hobbled out to bat at No. 11 and finished the game undefeated on 28 balls out of 28.
The Blast’s reigning winners, Somerset, will take on Surrey in the opening semi-final on Saturday morning. With 515 runs at 46.81 and a strike rate of 151.02, Banton leads their team in run scoring throughout the tournament. Last week, during their quarterfinal triumph over Northamptonshire, he hit 75 runs. On Monday, he scored 132 runs in the first innings of a match against Surrey.
“Tom went over awkwardly playing football in the warm-up this morning and, as a consequence, couldn’t take the field,” Andy Hurry, Somerset’s director of cricket, said. “We will get him scanned tomorrow and will have more information by the end of play. His heroics in batting today show how passionate he is about the club.
“The situation in the game dictated that Tom might be needed to bat at the end of our innings. I was not in the dressing room, but I understand that he was adamant that he wanted to go out there.”
Hurry also defended the club’s decision to play football as part of their warm-ups. “As director of cricket, I am keen to support it because I understand the value players get from it,” he said. “It gets the energy and heart-rate going in the morning, having rested from the previous day, and also gets them mentally ready to compete.”