91Èȱ¬

To be honest, Twenty20 cricket isn't a game to which I am temperamentally suited as I can lay a pretty strong claim to being the most boring batsman ever to grace the league in which I used to play, having once batted the entire 48 overs of a match and only reached 50 in the last over.

My team also used to play 20 overs a side matches in midweek, but I only ever took part in one of them. It didn't prove to be my finest hour as I ran myself out off the first ball!

When I mentioned all this to Langer, he could only smile in disbelief - or perhaps it was just pity for my dismal lack of talent.

Northants were expecting a sell-out crowd as their side still had a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals and thankfully the weather didn't intervene - I even saw a couple of people with ice creams - but unfortunately, their team didn't do the occasion justice with a curiously muted performance.

smacked the second ball of the innings for four and I thought I might be in for a repeat of the big-hitting exploits I remembered from the 1999 World Cup.

Sadly, he only managed 20 before being bowled by Peter Trego, one of three Somerset seam bowlers who clearly don't look to the England team for inspiration as they didn't send down a single wide between them.

What Klusener may have thought of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life blasting out around the ground as he walked back to the dressing room, I'll leave you to imagine for yourselves.

So where were the thrills and spills which I'd been led to believe were the norm in Twenty20 cricket?

In truth, there weren't many during the Northants innings apart from a couple of sixes each from David Sales and Johannes van der Wath and a brilliant throw from John Francis which ran out Riki Wessels.

A target of 138 didn't look daunting for Somerset, but my pre-match wish of 'Hope you make some runs' proved more a curse than a blessing for Langer as he gave a return catch to Steven Crook after managing only four - cue Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis.

Once Matthew Wood and Cameron White had established a productive second wicket partnership, however, it quickly became obvious which team was going to win the game - and certain members of the crowd took it upon themselves to try and provide some additional entertainment.

Despite the size of the crowd, stewards were few and far between, allowing one bloke the chance to make not one, but two grand entrances onto the field of play.

His first foray saw him retrieve a beach ball which he held aloft as if he'd just discovered the lost treasure of the Incas (perhaps not a very likely eventuality in Northampton, but it was the first thing of value which came into my head) and he later tip-tapped all the way out to the pitch with a white cane and all the way back again without being pursued by any figure of authority.

Crowd control is something of a hot topic at the moment as a result of bad behaviour at a number of games, and afterwards Langer was certainly unhappy with some of the verbal abuse directed at his players.

But the number of children who spilled onto the outfield with bats and balls after White had ended the contest with two sixes in three balls, both of which cleared the perimeter wall beyond the short mid-wicket boundary, was certainly good to see - and it is that younger generation the Twenty20 Cup was set up to attract.

All we need now is for the 'big kids' to stay at home.