A star-studded Southampton Rangers crushed Somerset by 84 runs to advance into the final of the T20 Premier Division Knockout Cup.

Coached by two former Cup Match legends in Herbie Bascome and Clevie Wade and featuring eight past or present Cup Match players, Rangers look set to dominate this season and captain Alex Dore is expecting his team to chase more silverware after winning the recently completed T20 league.

“Today was a good game and a good test for us,” Dore said.

“The wicket wasn’t up to the standard we would like but we chose to bat. We back ourselves and we are good enough to play on any wicket and I thought we did a good job at that today.

“Nyhrobi Carmichael is the leading wicket-taker in T20 and he showed his character and skill again today, so we are now looking forward to the next round.”

Winning the toss and electing to bat, things did not go as initially planned for Rangers after JJ Nel produced a contender for catch of the season when making a brilliant overhead diving grab to dismiss Delray Rawlins for two in the first over.

Rangers’ other opener Onias Bascome smashed Isaiah Richardson to the boundary in two consecutive deliveries before the bowler would trap him for 11 on a ball that stayed low, with umpire Roger Dill raising his finger for lbw

Rangers were in a spot of bother with both openers back in the pavilion and only 14 runs on the board, but Dore and Dion Stovell steadied the ship, taking the score to 48 for two at the end of the six-over power play. The two would put on a 44-run third-wicket partnership before first change Kwasi James bowled the latter for 28.

Dalin Richardson would then partner his captain and the two would put on a team-high fourth-wicket partnership worth 70 runs to carry the score to 114 before Somerset captain Dominic Sabir, fresh from leading Pembroke Panthers to their first win in the Bermuda Smash Invitational, enticed Richardson to fly out to long on for 22.

Dore continued to farm the strike but would fall nine runs short of his half century as he hit out to Nel to become Antonio Darrell’s second wicket. Former Somerset Cup Match captain DeSilva would add a quickfire 30 not out to help Rangers post 172 for nine in their allotted 20 overs.

Darrell was the pick of the Somerset bowlers with two for 19, ably assisted by James with two for 24 and Maybury two for 25.

In reply and needing 8.65 runs per over, Somerset opened with Nel and Sabir. Similar to Rangers they would lose their first wicket in the opening over as Duente Darrell gave Nel a run for his money in the catching stakes after making a spectacular running, overhead catch of his own before diving and holding onto the ball to dismiss the South African for two.

Zeri Tomlinson came to the crease and batted sensibly with Sabir to carry the score to 56 before the captain hit a low drive, which Rawlins did well to hold onto after running in from the long on boundary.

From there, wickets started to crumble with only Tomlinson (26) and Amari Ebbin (14 not out) offering any resistance to the Rangers bowlers.

Brianna Ray came in at No 11 and played two glorious late cuts to square leg before she was last out as Somerset limped to 88.

Carmichael was the pick of the Rangers bowlers with four for 24, while Rawlins claimed two for 14.