A superb all-round show from Alfonso Thomas ensured Somerset beat Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Deccan Chargers by one wicket in a pulsating Group A match of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Thomas, who took 2-25 earlier, came back to score a brilliant 30, to take the English side home at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium on Saturday.
Somerset looked done and dusted when they were reduced to 99-7 in the 14th over. However Thomas along with James Hildreth revived the innings with a crucial 50-run partnership off just 30 balls.
The match has its set of moments with the pendulum swinging in both the directions. Deccan Chargers were a bowler short, after pacer Fidel Edwards was banned for bowling two beamers.
With Somerset requiring five runs off the penultimate over, Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist gave the ball to Scott Styris.
Chargers' hopes were raised when Styris picked up the eighth and ninth wicket in space of three balls.
Thomas, who had managed to get back the strike by then, dispatched a full toss for a boundary to level the scores. He then played a dot ball and smashed another boundary, an inside out shot, to seal a thrilling win for his team.
Thomas' unbeaten knock came off just 17-balls and it contained four boundaries and a six.
Chargers' bolwers were unimpressive as the pacers went for plenty. RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha were the pick of the bowlers with three wickets and two wickets respectively.
Earlier, the IPL-II winners suffered a middle-order collapse to squander a breezy start but managed to put on a fighting total on a batting friendly wicket.
VVS Laxman, who opened the innings with Gilchrist, scored a brilliant 46 off 35 balls, which included seven elegant fours. Coming at number seven, Venugopal Rao played a crucial 12-ball cameo to help his team get past the 150-run mark.
Deccan looked like they were heading for a massive score at one stage but wickets fell regularly and that put paid to their hopes.
It was an unsually aggressive Laxman who hit Charl Willoughby for two boundaries in the very first over.
Gilchrist was the first one to go when he miscued his pull and ended up in the hands of Marucs Trescothick off Alfonso Thomas .
Tirumalasetti Suman (6) joined his captain in the hut soon and this time Ven Phillips striking for the English team.
Andrew Symonds (8) joined Laxman in the middle but could not do much. While trying to hit Peter Trego out of park he over found Trescothick at long-on.
The run-rate was not a problem for Deccan as they were going handsomely at that stage but falling wickets was a concern.
Trego struck again and this time he scalped the big wicket of Laxman, leaving the hosts reeling at 88 for four.
Ben Phillips took three wickets while Peter Trego and Alfonso Thomas took two wickets apiece for Somerset and were backed by some electric fielding by their team-mates.
