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Abes leads the fightback on day one
Tom Abell scored yet another fine century for Somerset as his side recovered from a poor start on the opening day of this Vitality County Championship Division One match at the Cooper Associates County Ground.
From 68 for three, the home side fought back brilliantly to finish the day on 395 for six thanks in no small part to Abell who showed his class when his County needed him once again.
After winning the toss, and electing to bat, Somerset were looking to start positively in a bid to narrow the gap to Surrey at the top of the table. Unfortunately, it couldn’t have got off to a worse start.
Andy Umeed fell to the opening ball of the match, edging Ben Raine to Ashton Turner at second slip.
Lewis Goldsworthy, recalled to the Championship side and promoted up the order, was joined by Tom Lammonby and the pair looked to rebuild. They had to dig deep against both Raine and Daniel Hogg who continued to ask questions of the Somerset batters. with the Kookaburra ball.
With the score on 25, Lammonby was undone by a short delivery from Hogg which rose sharply, forcing him to chip the ball to Ben McKinney at mid wicket.
Somerset needed a platform from which to build and Goldsworthy and Abell provided that by sharing a stand of 43 for the third wicket.
However, in Brydon Carse’s third over he forced Goldsworthy onto the back foot and the Cornishman edged through to Ollie Robinson with the scoreboard showing 68.
Abell continued to acquire his runs intelligently as he and Tom Banton brought up the Somerset 100 in the 25th over. The Toms were both looking in good touch and Banton in particular took a liking to George Drissell, dispatching him back down the ground for a big six.
The 50 partnership arrived from 86 balls, and by the time lunch was taken Somerset had recovered to 120 for three.
After the break, Abell went to 50 from 92 balls before Banton reached his half century from 72 deliveries.
Abell continued to look imperious and went to three figures from 148 balls. He was eventually dismissed when Callum Parkinson got one to turn and found the outside edge before Borthwick did the rest at first slip.
The Somerset batter left the field to a standing ovation having amassed 124 runs and shared a record fourth wicket stand for Somerset against Durham in First Class cricket. Their partnership of 185 eclipsed the previous best of 170 between Jamie Cox and James Hildreth in 2004.
253 for four soon became 260 for five when Banton (73) fell in exactly the same fashion on the stroke of tea to slightly take the gloss off what had been a superb session for the home side.
Following the tea interval, Archie Vaughan, making his First Class debut for the Club, joined James Rew in the middle as the visitors employed spin from both ends, buoyed by the turn extracted by Parkinson prior to the break. Undeterred, the Somerset pair continued to play their shots and brought up their 50 partnership from 76 balls.
It was a promising debut performance for Vaughan, who made a brisk 30 before falling lbw to Hogg at 328 for six. Unaffected by the loss of his young partner, Rew reached 50 from 71 balls and then set about the Durham attack, dispatching Carse for 16 runs in one over which demonstrated that the Somerset ‘keeper has the full range of shots in his repertoire.
By the close of play, Rew remained unbeaten on 89, his partnership with Kasey Aldridge worth 67, as Somerset left the field just five runs shy of a fourth batting point feeling that they were on top after an absorbing day’s play.
