Somerset have done very little so far to suggest relegation predictions were wide of the mark. They travelled to Nottingham having lost all three of their championship matches and a first-class tour game against New Zealand.
For Nottinghamshire, the lack of a win is something more of a surprise; they began the season as second favourites to lift the championship trophy. They are without their leading run scorer Alex Hales for this match; he has flown to India to join up with the Mumbai Indians who have made it through to the final of the IPL.
Somerset will be pleased with the way they fought back on the first day having lost the toss and been asked to bat on a pitch that was greener than the Chicago River on St Patrick’s day.
The day started badly with the loss of their captain, Marcus Trescothick, in the first over as Vernon Philander got through his defences to clean bowl him. Then five overs later, the South African seamer dismissed the other Somerset opener, Tom Abell, with a ball that moved off the seam to take the edge. In his first spell of seven overs Philander bowled five maidens taking two wickets for six runs.
The third-wicket partnership between Johann Myburgh and James Hildreth built nicely and, with the score having moved to 99 for two with 10 minutes left before lunch, it looked as though Somerset’s morning was going to turn out well. Then Chris Read brought on Steven Mullaney from the pavilion end and he broke the partnership, removing Myburgh with a perfect yorker for 49.
It was to be the beginning of a collapse in which Somerset lost three wickets in 11 balls for two runs in the lead-up to lunch, leaving them reeling at 101 for five.
It was left to Jim Allenby to lead a rebuilding job in the afternoon session. Allenby, who has had an inauspicious start to his batting career with Somerset, hit a confident 64 that included some of the types of crunching shots he was known for at Glamorgan.
It was the all-rounder Craig Overton who impressed the most, battering 55 from 31 balls including 11 fours and taking Somerset past 300. He and Alex Barrow put on 70 for the ninth wicket exploiting some inconsistent bowling from Harry Gurney and Jake Ball who were guilty of too many loose deliveries outside the off stump.
Craig is the better batsman of the Overton twins and is particularly strong square of the wicket on the off side and was being fed delivery after delivery right in his strongest scoring zone.
Somerset were dismissed for 312 half an hour after tea. For Nottinghamshire it was a disappointing performance from three of their five seam bowlers and they will be frustrated they let the pressure slip after an excellent morning session.
They were left with a tricky 24 overs to bat in the evening gloom. The openers, Mullaney and Brendan Taylor, were extremely watchful at first, playing their way in against the brisk bowling of Lewis Gregory and some nagging movement from Tim Groenewald. They negotiated their way quietly through the first 10 overs before a full-length delivery from Gregory that skidded on trapped Mullaney leg-before for 19 with 13 overs still remaining in the day.
Greg Smith occupied the crease for 25 minutes before also being trapped lbw, leaving the hosts precariously poised on 48 for two with seven overs still to face. The two Taylors, Brendan and James, saw them through, adding a further nine runs to the score. Speaking at the end of the day Allenby was pleased with how his side had battled. He said: “Having got 300-odd on that pitch was over par and having had a bit of a wobble the last few games it was nice to get it right today in what were actually more difficult conditions than the games we’ve been messing up in.
“Peter Trego and I used our experience to keep scoring and we knew the ball would get a bit softer and tried to capitalise on when Philander wasn’t bowling because he was pretty tricky out there.”
