Somerset 149 for 2 (Smeed 81) beat Essex 148 (Critchley 54, Elgar 50, Green 3-30) by eight wickets
Will Smeed made light work of Essex's meagre total as 2024 runners-up Somerset made it two wins from two to begin their Men's Vitality Blast campaign.
T20 powerhouse Smeed whacked 81 in 54 balls to canter to an eight-wicket victory, as they chased 148 with 25 balls to spare.
Tom Lammonby also chipped in with 36, in a 96-run opening stand, as Somerset's men avenged the defeat their club-mates suffered in the Women's Vitality Blast earlier in the day.
Matt Critchley and Dean Elgar's half-centuries merely sugar-coated a second successive heavy defeat for Essex - having lost their opener at Hampshire by 106 runs.
Essex chose to bat, it started badly and ended horrendously, but in the middle, Elgar and Critchley fashioned an 83-run partnership.
Adam Rossington edged a Craig Overton nip-backer behind to the first ball of the innings before Michael Pepper top-edged a hook and Paul Walter was incredibly caught one-handed by Thomas Rew on the deep midwicket boundary edge.
But having been 36 for three at the end of the powerplay, the Eagles recovered to 119 for three in the 14th over, though a mixture of smart placement and innovative hitting.
Elgar was the master of playing the angles on the leg-side, with a pair of big sixes over square leg, in his 36-ball half-century.
Critchley swung hard and often but found true class in his reverse scoops - two of which sailed for six - with two other maximums coming in his 54 in 31 balls.
But Elgar's departure, caught on the top edge, began a death-spiral - with the last six wickets falling for 29 runs in 35 sorry balls.
In the over following Elgar's demise, Ben Green took three wickets. Charlie Allison was well caught on the slide by deep midwicket Tom Lammonby, before the same fielder easily pouched Luc Benkenstein and Simon Harmer turned to deep square leg.
Critchley's reign ended when he was run out in the aftermath of a no-ball confusion, with Shane Snater - the only other batter after Elgar and Critchley to reach double figures - giving Australian quick Riley Meredith a deserved second wicket to end up with two for 18.
Lewis Gregory polished things up by castling Sam Cook; Essex bowled out for 148.
Somerset barely broke a sweat in their chase. Smeed set the tone with two boundaries in the first over of the innings, which Lammonby followed up with a loopy six over square leg.
The pair continued to pepper the boundaries and ease towards victory, until Critchley caught and bowled Lammonby, followed by Tom Kohler-Cadmore slog-sweeping straight in the air.
But Smeed reached his 13th Somerset fifty in 26 balls, barely taking a risk in his swings through gaps. He took that up to 81 in 54 balls to get his side over the line with a single.
