SOMERSET V SURREY at Taunton (Royal London One-Day Cup), 17 AUGUST 2015

Twice now, in this season's Royal London One-Day Cup, Somerset have ended a run of back-to-back defeats with a victory. The question is can they score back-to-back wins to throw Surrey's claim to a home quarter-final into doubt? Before anyone accuses me of being over-dramatic, Surrey beat Yorkshire by 6 runs, but Somerset's six-wicket victory over the Vikings at Scarborough was sealed with nearly 12 overs to spare.

Key to that performance was Scotland's Josh Davey helping to reduce Yorkshire to 22 for four and Craig Overton (9 wickets at an average of 23.66 in the RLODC this season) returning figures of 10-2-19-2. Not for the first time, Jack Leach's slow left-arm proved difficult to get away and Peter Trego (9 wickets at 18.88 runs apiece) underlined why he remains a force in limited-overs cricket with 4-29. One wonders whether Somerset are now ruing their decision to put Alfonso Thomas out on loan, and back youth.

Adam Hose, a 22-year-old batsman, has forged a decent opening partnership with Tom Abell, 21, of whom even greater things are expected. But it's what follows that determines whether the cidermen are up to the task - a three to six of Trego, Tom Cooper (291 runs at an average of 58.20), James Hildreth (who is averaging 52.75) and skipper Jim Allenby.

Somerset's James Hildreth looks set to make his 175th List A appearance.

Kumar Sangakkara is on international duty. So, Matt Dunn (fit again after a number of weeks out with a calf strain), Ben Foakes, Aneesh Kapil and Tim Linley join the ten available from the side that overcame Worcestershire.

Surrey have won their last three List A clashes with Somerset, but, crucially, not one of the trio was at Taunton where the Oval outfit have just a single win to show for nine visits in recent memory - in 2003, when Graham Thorpe laid the foundation with a superb 102 not out, at very nearly a run a ball. Like Surrey, Somerset prefer to bat first. In their last two 50-over games at Taunton, the cidermen have won the toss, batted first and posted 327-8 against Durham and 305-7 against Worcestershire. So, here's my prediction - Gareth Batty needs to call correctly.

A Hose, T Abell, P Trego, T Cooper, J Hildreth, J Allenby (capt), A Barrow (wk), T Groenewald, C Overton, J Leach and J Davey.

Neil Bainton and Alex Wharf.

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