During the 87th game of the Vitality Blast T20 season, a shocking incident occurred as Somerset all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe dislocated his finger while attempting to stop the ball. The incident took place in the 16th over of the first innings when van der Merwe bowled a low full toss to Matt Critchley. While trying to prevent the ball, he dislocated his finger.
Without wasting any time, the 38-year-old rushed to the physiotherapist, who managed to put his dislocated finger back in place. Surprisingly, van der Merwe quickly returned to the pitch and continued bowling the remaining deliveries of the over. Fortunately, his bowling finger was not hit during the incident.
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The Vitality Blast shared a video of the incident on social media, highlighting van der Merwe’s resilience and captioning it as, “Roelof van der Merwe is an absolute trooper: dislocates his finger brilliantly stopping a ball, gets it put back in place, and sprints back to bowl! (Viewing not advised for the squeamish).”
Roelof van der Merwe is an absolute trooper: dislocates his finger brilliantly stopping a ball, gets it put back in place, and sprints back to bowl! 😎
(Viewing not advised for the squeamish)#Blast23 pic.twitter.com/Z7naGZV76p
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 19, 2023
Shifting focus to the game itself, Essex won the toss and chose to bat first. However, their innings got off to a disastrous start as both openers were dismissed early on. Feroze Khushi was dismissed for one run by Jack Brooks, while Dan Lawrence fell for eight runs, also at the hands of Brooks.
Despite the early setbacks, Essex managed to post a competitive total of 186 runs, largely thanks to the contributions of Robin Das (72 runs) and Paul Walter (51 runs). Somerset, in their chase, displayed an impressive batting performance.
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Tom Banton (42 runs) and Will Smeed (36 runs) provided a solid foundation at the top of the order. Tom Abell (40 not out) and Sean Dickson (30 not out) further consolidated the innings, supported by a quick cameo from Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who scored 28 runs off just 11 deliveries. Somerset comfortably chased down the target, winning the game by seven wickets.
