A BRILLIANT unbeaten century from Andy Umeed, who carried his bat for 114  and a mature innings of 71 from James Rew, saw Somerset off to a winning start in the Metro Bank One Day Cup when they beat Kent by three wickets at Taunton on Friday evening.

Before play started players from both teams lined up outside the Andy Caddick Pavilion to observe a minute's silence in memory of former Somerset all rounder Ken Palmer who passed away earlier in the week at the age of 87.

After Kent chose to bat the Somerset opening bowlers Ned Leonard and Alfie Ogborne both beat the bat on several occasions, before Beyers Swanepoel top edged the latter who continued his follow through to take the catch. 

Jack Leach, making only his third List A appearance since 2015, entered the attack and was rewarded with a wicket in his second over when he bowled Ekansh Singh for 16. After 20 overs Kent had moved onto 97 for two shortly after which Joey Evison went to his 50 with a single off Lewis Goldsworthy.

The Kent 100 came up before the slow left armer bowled Jack Leaning for 17. Goldsworthy, making his first appearance since returning from a loan period at Leicestershire, struck again with the score on 107 when he had Evison sharply caught at short extra cover by Umeed for 55.

The Cornishman kept up the pressure and five runs later bowled Harry Finch with a slightly quicker ball. Debutant Archie Vaughan was introduced to the attack with his off breaks and in tandem with Goldsworthy bowled six very tidy overs of off spin that conceded just 16 runs. 

Goldsworthy struck once more when he had Jaydn Denly caught by Kasey Aldridge for 18 before finishing with the impressive figures of four for 44 from his 10 overs. 

Once Somerset returned to their pacemen the score picked up. Grant Stewart, batting at number eight, hit 51 off 34 balls with five fours and two sixes and Hamid Qadri made 43 off 30, the pair putting on 58 for the eighth wicket in five overs before Kent were all out for 267 in 49 overs.

Ogborne ended with three for 58, while Aldridge claimed two for 54.  When Somerset responded George Thomas hit four fours in his 18 before giving a straightforward catch to mid on with the score on 32. Goldsworthy scored seven before he was caught by Finch off Charlie Stobo making the hosts 44 for two. 

Umeed and Rew steadied the situation before the former started to up the rate, hitting Parkinson back over his head for the the first six of the innings.  Rew then lofted Qadri to long on to bring up the 50 partnership and next ball saw up the 100. 

Rew started to accelerate and went to his half century with a single off Parkinson off 47 balls, with seven fours and a six. Umeed went to his half century off 62 balls with three fours and also brought  up the 100 partnership. 

The pair kept moving the score forward but after adding 121, a  new List A record for the third wicket partnership against Kent, Rew was bowled by Nathan Gilchrist for 71 off 69 balls, with eight fours and two sixes. Vaughan came in and was unfortunately run out backing up without facing a ball when a hard drive from Umeed was touched onto the stumps by bowler Charlie Stobo.

Skipper Sean Dickson briefly took the attack to the bowlers but on 23 he hit the ball straight to  Evison at mid on. Josh Thomas followed soon after making Somerset 212 for six in the 38th over. 

Aldridge took his score onto 10 before he was caught by Finch off Swanpoel leaving the hosts 232 for seven. Leach raised a cheer from the crowd when he hit Parkinson for six to reduce the arrears to 28.

With the pressure mounting Umeed stepped down the wicket and hit Parkinson straight back over his head for six leaving Somerset needing 14 off 24 balls. 

The opener repeated the exercise first ball off the next over bowled by Stobo to go to his century off 119 balls, with  four fours and three sixes, and then hit another four and six to move to 114 and take Somerset to victory with 3.3 overs remaining.