I’m a bit late with a report on yesterday’s Champions’ League action for reasons that will become obvious in the next post. Apologies for that.

It was a must-win game for Bangalore yesterday. They carried no points through from the first round — their only win having been against Otago who are eliminated. Victoria, on the other hand, have points from their win over Delhi. The Indian side started very well, with Manish Pandey looking particularly impressive. However, Bangalore were without their star player, Jacques Kallis, because of an injury, and once wickets started to fall their run rate slumped. Andy MacDonald took an excellent 4-21 for Victoria, and Bangalore finished on a mere 127. Given that they had been 72/2 after 10 overs, this was very poor.

And so it proved. Victoria cruised to victory by 7 wickets with 25 balls to spare. David Hussey finished the match in emphatic style, clobbering Anil Kumble for three 6s in one over. So Victoria now have 4 points with a game to play and look pretty certain to get a semi-final slot. Bangalore are probably out of it, but they do have a game against Delhi to come and I’m sure they’ll be keen to win that one.

Somerset’s next game is due to start in about half an hour. They will have to do without their star batsman, Marcus Trescothick, who has flown home with a re-occurrence of the illness that has kept him out of the England side for several years.