England bowler Craig Overton responded angrily to an online troll criticising Somerset’s failure to beat Worcestershire, telling them to: “p— off and support another club”.

Worcestershire escaped Taunton with an extraordinary last-ball draw, having batted out 200 overs across five sessions after Tom Banton’s 371 – the third-highest score in the 135-year history of the County Championship – had given Somerset a 516-run first-innings lead. Worcestershire’s last man Tom Hinley survived 44 balls to secure the defiant draw nine down.

In the hours after the defeat, Somerset stalwart Overton, who took five wickets in the match, became embroiled in a fiery exchange with a critical Somerset fan who accused him of “happily taking a back-seat role” amid a barrage of other complaints about the team’s performance.

As the game drew to a conclusion, Somerset skipper Lewis Gregory had opted to bowl his spinners, Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan, rather than seam options like Overton, the long-time attack leader. Leach and Vaughan bowled 115 second innings overs, sharing five wickets on a slow, flat pitch.

On X, formerly Twitter, the user wrote: “Same old story, Hurry [the Somerset coach Andrew Hurry] failed to strengthen squad, re-signs domestic level overseas and the so called leader of Somerset CCC attack @craigoverton12 happily takes a back-seat role as his team can’t dismiss the opposition in 200 overs.”

Overton, 30, replied: “You wouldn’t be happy if I bowled from one end all day would you. Why don’t you p— off and support someone else?”

Overton’s comment received support from other social-media users. He has had previous run-ins with this particular Somerset fan, who is a regular critic of the club management.

Last season, Overton replied to them: “Don’t ever question mine or my team-mates efforts. We gave everything on a surface that gave nothing. Did you even watch any of the game? Typical armchair fan who knows it all.”