And that’s that for the day. Stay on the site for close of play reports from Mike Selvey at Trent Bridge and Vic Marks at Taunton. Bye.
Updated
Oddly enough at tea both sides had good reason to be pleased with themselves – Lancashire because they had lost only three wickets, Somerset because they had conceded only 171 runs in 66 overs, 25 of which have been bowled by left-arm spinners.
This is not quite the brave new world that the ECB is looking forward – at least I hope it’s not. Here the spinners are bowling primarily because there is nothing in the pitch for the quicker bowlers. Very occasionally the ball has turned and we can understand how the ECB is keen to advance the scope for spin bowlers. But a good pitch has pace and this one is lacking that vital attribute.
In the afternoon session Karl Brown was lbw propping forward to Leach and Luke Procter played around a straight ball from Tim Groenewald. In between Alviro Petersen, back on one of his old stamping grounds, has looked composed with plenty of time to choose which shot to play. Steven Croft is keeping calm company.
Neither Overton has taken a wicket; both have bowled well and they look the part. And both are sufficiently raw not to get too grumpy at the slowness of the surface. They keep bounding in.
Well, the thinktank at the ECB wanted to get the spinners involved. So Jack Leach, Somerset’s left-armer, has bowled nine overs before lunch on the first day (for only eight runs) and has taken the solitary wicket to fall. Lancashire are 76-1 after 34 overs.
The ball is not turning but Leach has landed it in the right place and has commanded respect. On a sluggish, brown surface (I’m sticking with the “flat, draw” prediction) he has been hard to hit. He’s returning from a stress fracture, so this was an impressive effort. He will have plenty more bowling in this match.
Somerset’s seamers bowled with discipline but their patience may be tested by this pitch. Clearly, Peter Trego has been at his most persuasive recently – he’s never been reluctant to offer an opinion. Here he was given the new ball and when not bowling he was stationed at first slip. However the Overton brothers and Tim Groenewald looked rather more threatening – curiously Lewis Gregory has been rotated.
For Lancashire, the 19-year-old Haseeb Hameed impressed until he drove a catch to short extra cover. His partner Karl Brown has been businesslike and is unbeaten on 43. It is not looking very cheerful over the Quantocks. It may not be that cheerful in the Somerset dressing room. There is some toil ahead.
Updated
Yorkshire have emerged from the first session in better spirits than they might have expected after a masterclass of half-volley bowling. The tone was set when the first two deliveries of Jack Brooks’ opening over were dispatched through the covers by Steve Mullaney and they rarely let up thereafter. Better on this pitch to err on the side of full, as Mullaney demonstrated by pulling sixes from David Willey and Liam Plunkett on the two occasions they did drag the length back – but this was overdoing it.
Two of the three wickets to fall, for 132, did go to Brooks, the first of which, that of Alex Hales, brought to a conclusion a very Hales-ish innings in which he dispatched the bad ball well and then got out, although not to a good one but to another half-volley that he drilled straight at a fielder just placed at short extra cover for the start of a second spell by Brooks. Brooks then took the wicket of Greg Smith, who dragged a wide half-volley on to his middle stump. A third wicket, that of Mullaney for 78, fell with what was the last ball of the session as he pushed at a mercifully good length ball from Patterson, that bounced a fraction and was caught by Lees at first slip at the second attempt.
Visits to the press box this morning from two old adversaries in Alan Butcher, who has a book to publicise, and John Hampshire. I have video of highlights of the 1980 Gillette final between Middlesex and Surrey, and the only delivery of mine shows Butch belting me into the Mound Stand for six. It scarcely does justice to eventual figures of 12-7-17-2 but then a minimum of 60 dot balls wouldn’t make great highlights.
Meanwhile, during the lunch interval, there is the sight, on the outfield, of eight lads, dressed as zebras, playing cricket. They may be labouring under the misapprehension that this is the Saturday of a Test match but I doubt it. They are probably just barking.
County blog a bit late on parade, but game is under way ( or should that, in the nautical sense be under weigh? I often wonder). As Ali has pointed out in his preview to this round of matches, there is a Test trial feel to this game at Trent Bridge. Certainly there are players – Alex Hales, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid, David Willey perhaps – all with something to prove. At the moment, Yorkshire have got off to a shabby start with the ball, having opted, as is their right as the visiting team, to field first. Willey, making his Yorkshire debut in place of the injured Ryan Sidebottom, swung the new ball from the pavilion end, and Jack Brooks, at the other end, gave it every opportunity, serving up a diet of half volleys, readily dispatched. So at the moment, Notts are 40-0 from 6 overs, with Hales 21 and Mullaney 17.
It is incidentally a pleasure to be in what is one of the world’s best cricket press boxes after enduring what is indisputably one of the worst at the Oval last week. It makes such a difference to reporting the game when you can actually see it.
Greetings from Taunton where I’m watching a red ball for the first time since September. There was a toss at 1030; Lancashire won it and are batting. You can divine from this that the pitch is browner than is often the case at Taunton, where green grass has often been visible on the first day in recent times. This was done not so much to deliver extravagant movement but to retain some pace in the pitch.
The major concern about the new toss regulations is that they will produce bland pitches, favoured by batsmen, as groundsmen play safe. It is too early to come to too many conclusions about this but so far there have been a lot of runs and a lot of draws. As ever we could just blame the weather. It’s been sporadically damp and very cold. Freezing conditions favour batsmen. It is easier for them to keep warm and the ball is less inclined to swing from frozen fingers.
After two balls I’m inclined to repeat the prognostication of one of my press colleagues, memorably delivered with absolute authority in Johannesburg in 1999 in Duncan Fletcher’s first game as England coach. “Flat. Draw”, he declared with Churchillian certainty. Within a quarter of an hour England were 2-4 against South Africa.
We are watching from a swish new press box in Somerset’s latest pavilion. High in the sky and we can see more of the Quantocks than ever before (although there is talk of rain later). The Wifi appears to be working well and there is coffee at the back. And it’s warm in here. So morale is relatively high. After a quarter of an hour Lancashire are 5-0. It really does look flat.
