Marcus Trescothick can put the kettle on: his team-mates could soon be back in Taunton. One day after the Somerset batsman returned to England with a reprise of his anxiety disorder, the men that he left behind him in India were beaten by Diamond Eagles in the Twenty20 Champions League and need a mathematical miracle on Saturday if they are to reach the semi-finals.

The Eagles, from South Africa, had eliminated Sussex in the first group stage in a “super over” after their match ended as a tie, but there was little chance of Friday’s game in Hyderabad going the distance once Somerset had made an inadequate total of 132 for eight.

They did well to get that many. Wes Durston, a lower-order batsman who was born in Taunton, replaced Trescothick in the XI and came to the crease with Somerset 52 for five after nine overs. He departed nine overs later, having made 57 out of a sixth-wicket stand of 77 with James Hildreth that revived the innings briefly, but Somerset scored only one more run off the bat and three in total from the final ten balls of the innings.

Cornelius de Villiers, a medium-fast bowler who suffered a stress fracture of his back this summer, continued a fine tournament against the English sides. Having taken four wickets against Sussex — two in the super over — he took four for 17 against Somerset with two wicket maidens.

Craig Kieswetter and Arul Suppiah were leg-before in De Villiers’s first over, misjudging balls that came back in to them, and Zander de Bruyn gave an easy catch to mid-off in the next over. Durston hit three consecutive fours to spoil De Villiers’s figures when he returned to the attack near the end, but the South African had the final word when Durston was caught on the boundary and only two leg-byes were conceded in his final over.

Although Charl Willoughby dismissed Rilee Rossouw in the second over of the reply, runs flowed too freely for the South Africans. Morné van Wyk, who has played a handful of limited-overs internationals, scored 47 off 41 balls but was caught with seven needed off 19 balls by Kieswetter, the wicketkeeper running across to square leg to take the skied ball.

His team-mates made a slight meal of finishing the job, needing 11 balls to score the remaining seven runs, but after the match had finished with a leg-bye, Somerset looked like being eliminated had Trinidad & Tobago not made a thrilling comeback against New South Wales Blues hours later.

After New South Wales reached 170 for four, based on an opening stand of 121 between Phillip Hughes and David Warner, Trinidad slipped to 118 for six in the sixteenth over but Kieron Pollard turned the game in a blink with 54 off 18 balls. Forty-two came in the space of nine balls from Moises Henriques, whose first two overs had cost only six runs, as Trinidad won with nine balls in hand.

Somerset now need to beat New South Wales heavily in their final match tomorrow and hope that Trinidad beat the Eagles.

Andy Nash, the Somerset chairman, spoke to Trescothick yesterday on his return to England and said that next year’s captain was happy to be back. “He was fine — it sounded like the normal Marcus,” Nash said. “He was down to earth, grounded and very straightforward.

“Everyone is saying what a gutsy performance it was for him to even travel out there in the first place. This wasn’t a setback for Marcus, it was a victory for him to get there.”

Somerset
†C Kieswetter lbw b De Villiers 8
*J L Langer b Tshabalala 12
A V Suppiah lbw b De Villiers 0
Z de Bruyn c A P McLaren b De Villiers 2
J C Hildreth c Rossouw b Coetzee 31
P D Trego c and b Kruger 6
W J Durston c R McLaren b De Villiers 57
B J Phillips c A P McLaren b Coetzee 0
A C Thomas not out 1
M T C Waller not out 0
Extras (lb 10, w 3, nb 2) 15
Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 132
C M Willoughby did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-12, 3-18, 4-40, 5-52, 6-129, 7-131, 8-131.
Bowling: Coetzee 4-0-24-2; De Villiers 4-2-17-4; Van Schalkwyk 1-0-9-0; R McLaren 4-0-31-0; Tshabalala 3-0-18-1; Kruger 3-0-14-1; Bailey 1-0-9-0.

Diamond Eagles
†M N van Wyk c Kieswetter b Thomas 47
R R Rossouw c Thomas b Willoughby 13
A P McLaren c Durston b Willoughby 13
*H H Dippenaar c Durston b Waller 18
R T Bailey c Waller b Thomas 29
R McLaren not out 4
A K Kruger not out 0
Extras (lb 8, w 1) 9
Total (5 wkts, 18.4 overs) 133
J Coetzee, C J D de Villiers, T Tshabalala and S C van Schalkwyk did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-46, 3-77, 4-126, 5-132.
Bowling: Thomas 3.4-0-20-2; Willoughby 4-0-29-2; Phillips 4-0-22-0; Waller 4-0-28-1; Trego 3-0-26-0.
Man of the match: De Villiers.
Umpires: R E Koertzen (South Africa) and A M Saheba.

New South Wales 170-4 (P J Hughes 83, D A Warner 63; D J Bravo 3 for 31)
Trinidad & Tobago 171-6 (K A Pollard 54 not out, off 18 balls).
Trinidad & Tobago won by four wickets.