Somerset batter Tom Banton put up a heroic show after coming out to bat with an injured leg in the County Championship Division One match against Surrey. Banton arrived at the crease when his team was reeling at 153/9 in their second innings. Despite struggling with a knee injury, the right-hander displayed immense courage and added 46 runs to the scoresheet off 65 balls. The main highlight of his gritty knock was a reverse sweep on one leg. He played that remarkable shot while facing Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.
The injury might have restricted his movement but Banton managed to execute the shot perfectly. No fielder chased the ball and it cleared the boundary rope through the deep backward point. Shakib Al Hasan was left stunned as he perhaps had not predicted the outcome.
A video of Banton’s exceptional effort was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Somerset Cricket. The commentators fell short of words to describe the reverse sweep. One of them said, “I don’t know what to say about that. Wow, beautiful.”
Tom Banton is reverse sweeping on one leg?!?#SOMvSUR#WeAreSomerset pic.twitter.com/zePyhRtKXg— Somerset Cricket (@SomersetCCC) September 12, 2024
Banton was the leading scorer for Somerset in the first innings against Surrey. The middle-order batter scored 132 facing 172 deliveries, hitting as many as 16 boundaries and one six. He hurt his ankle while warming up before the start of play on Day 3 in Taunton. Thanks to his brave knock in the second innings, Surrey managed to post a target of 221.
The club’s director of cricket, Andy Hurry, later revealed that Tom Banton picked up the ankle injury while “awkwardly playing football” in the warm-up. “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,” Hurry said, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.
Somerset may miss the services of Banton in their next game at the Vitality T20 Blast. The defending champions are slated to face Surrey in the first semi-final on September 14. Banton is currently the highest run-scorer of the tournament. He has aggregated 551 runs at an average of 46.81 and a strike rate of 151.02. He struck a blazing 75 in the quarter-final where Somerset beat Northamptonshire by 17 runs.
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