SOMERSET travel to Edgbaston on Monday to face Warwickshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup competition knowing that victory will see them through to their first Lord’s one-day final since 2011.

This season, Somerset have enjoyed a successful run in the premier one-day competition and have only been beaten in the group rounds once and that was at Canterbury.

Last Wednesday, they proved too strong for their Worcestershire visitors but a trip to the West Midlands to face Warwickshire is never easy.

One-day captain Jim Allenby said: “Our goal at the start of the season was to make it through to the knock out stages in both comps.

“Our 50-over game has gone well, with us only losing that one game against Kent.

“It’s fantastic we have now reached the semi-final and we go into the game on the back of a bit of a roll I guess and I’m really excited to be playing in another big match.

“This group of players got together last year in this same competition and Matt Maynard and the club have invested a lot of time and effort into getting the squad we have now.

“I guess we are seeing the results of getting on for two years of hard work, culminating in that performance in the quarter-final which was a pretty special all-round effort.

“We are probably a year ahead of where I thought we would be and we are still building so I didn’t expect us to be quite as good as we have been only having lost one game.

“What has been the most pleasing for me as captain has been the consistency of the attitude and the way that the guys have been willing to do stuff they probably haven’t done before.

“It’s really pleasing from my point of view and it has come about as a result of an extended period of hard work and some investment of time in some of the guys.

“The last semi I played in was in 2013 with Glamorgan, when we got to the Lord’s final so I know how special a day that is.

“Personally I love these big occasions and, as a team, it’s why you work hard all through the winter and do all the things that nobody sees to play in these big games in front of big crowds.”

Somerset will be without semi-final century-maker Mahela Jayawardene who has had to go back to Sri Lanka, but may well return if they reach the final.

However, fit-again Johann Myburgh is available for selection.