Match overview
Somerset beat Gloucestershire by 16 runs in the 2025 Vitality Blast at The Cooper Associates County Ground on 18 July 2025. Winning the toss and choosing to bat, Somerset posted 164/7 from their 20 overs. Gloucestershire's reply reached 148/8, leaving Somerset comfortable winners on home soil. It was a match decided largely in the powerplay and the death overs rather than the middle phase, where both sides were broadly comparable.
Somerset's 53 for 2 in the powerplay gave them early control. Gloucestershire's 43 for 2 in the same phase put them immediately under pressure on the required rate. By the time the death overs arrived, Gloucestershire needed momentum but instead lost 3 wickets for 44 runs, which ended any realistic prospect of overhauling the target.
The result moves Somerset to 12 wins from 22 head-to-head meetings against Gloucestershire, breaking what had been a precisely level rivalry. Gloucestershire had won three of the previous four encounters between the sides, so Somerset's home victory here carries some weight beyond the points table.
Venue and conditions
The Cooper Associates County Ground has hosted 76 T20 matches, producing an average first-innings score of 182. Somerset's 164 was therefore 18 runs below that benchmark, suggesting the pitch played slightly slower than usual or the batting was not quite at its fluent best. The second-innings average is 167, so Gloucestershire's 148 also fell short of par, confirming the surface was not at its most batter-friendly on the day.
The ground's powerplay average is 52 runs, which Somerset tracked almost exactly. The average death-over contribution is 42 runs; Somerset's 49 in that phase was above average and proved crucial. Toss winners choose to field 79% of the time at this ground, so Somerset's decision to buck that trend and bat first was a calculated one. History broadly supports that call: the chase success rate here is only 43%.
Dew is not generally a significant factor at Taunton in the way it can be at some other county grounds, particularly later in the evening. But the structural advantage of posting a total on this surface is clear from the data, and Somerset's decision to bat first aligned sensibly with the long-run numbers.
How to watch
Vitality Blast matches are shown live on Sky Sports Cricket, with coverage available to stream through Sky Go and NOW TV. Most group-stage fixtures are accessible via a NOW TV Sports day membership for those without a full Sky subscription. Highlights and live scorecards are also available on the ECB's website and the BBC Sport cricket pages throughout the competition.
Recent form
Somerset arrived at this match having won three of their previous five Blast fixtures in 2025, with victories over Kent, Essex, and Hampshire offset by losses to Glamorgan and Surrey. That record represents reasonable mid-table consistency, and home conditions clearly suit them. The win against Gloucestershire extended that run to four wins from six when playing at Taunton this season.
Gloucestershire's recent form was patchier. Two wins from five in 2025, with defeats to Sussex, Middlesex, and Surrey, meant they came into this match without a settled rhythm. Their bowling showed enough to restrict Somerset below the ground average, but the batting line-up never found the fluency to chase down 165 on a pitch that, while not quick, was not doing anything particularly awkward either. With both sides still in contention for the knockout stages, the gap opened by this result may matter before the group phase concludes.
