Surrey's chances of clinching a place in the Friends Provident Trophy semi-finals received a massive blow at Bath yesterday. Having started their penultimate South Conference game lying second in the table, the Brown Caps ended the day in fifth spot as other results went against them.

On a pitch where the batsmen only gained good value for their shots when the ball was new, Somerset went past Surrey's below-par 214-9 with 13 deliveries to spare thanks to an unbeaten 49 from James Hildreth, not to mention crucial cameos from 19-year-old keeper-batsman Craig Kieswetter and veteran seamer Steffan Jones.

After being put into bat, the visitors faltered after being handed a bright start by Alistair Brown and Scott Newman, who put on 45 in less than seven overs for the first wicket before Brown nibbled at Charl Willoughby to give Kieswetter the first of four catches. Newman was then defeated by one that Peter Trego swung in from outside the left-hander's off stump.

Apart from Jonathan Batty, who made 50 off 87 balls, the rest of the Surrey line-up made little impression. Mark Ramprakash announced himself with an on driven six off Trego, whom he also despatched through straight mid-wicket for four. But Ramprakash and Clarke were restricted to just 29 in nine overs for the third wicket, before both fell to Willoughby, who bowled straight through to collect figures of 3-22.

Rory Hamilton-Brown - who was dropped at cover off Willoughby before getting off the mark - laboured, but he and Batty found the boundary just twice in a 37-run stand lasting eleven overs.

After Hamilton-Brown was brilliantly snapped up at short mid-off off the bowling of Ian Blackwell, the visitors made decent progress with Azhar Mahmood at the crease. But Mahmood's 58-run alliance with Batty ended in the 42nd over when he was run out after failing to respond to his partner's call for a comfortable second run to deep square leg.

In the next over, the Surrey wicketkeeper brought up his half-century in 85 deliveries, but was promptly caught behind attempting to hook Mark Turner.

In reply, the home side were given a strong platform thanks to a confident 52 off 54 balls from Marcus Trescothick. The first eight boundaries in the Sabres' innings came from the blade of the former England opener. Three came in the sixth over when he cut Mahmood for four, hit him on the up through wide mid-off and then hooked the Pakistani to the fine leg fence.

After Trego departed to Nicholson's third ball, Justin Langer kept the pressure on the Brown Caps with a bright innings of eighteen. In the 15th over Mohammad Akram accounted for Trescothick with one that seamed away and after Langer picked out Brown on the mid-wicket fence four overs later, Somerset's batsmen managed just one boundary - when James Hildreth launched Nayan Doshi over long-on for six - in the next 23 overs.

Crucially, Kieswetter came in and immediately threw Mahmood off balance and hit Chris Schofield straight down the ground for four. Kieswetter became the former England leg-spinner's 100th victim in List A cricket, when he played across a ball that turned square. But, at that stage, with 25 needed off the last seven, the outcome had become a formality.

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