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Defeat for Somerset on day three
Surrey recorded their first win of the season on a dramatic third day of this Rothesay County Championship Division One match, beating Somerset by eight wickets at the Kia Oval.
Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark shared six wickets as Somerset were bowled out for 119, having conceded a first-innings deficit of 84. Surrey knocked off their target of 36 in 5.2 overs for the loss of two wickets and moved up to second in the table. behind early leaders Nottinghamshire.
At one stage Somerset lost six wickets for 13 runs in eight overs and were 38 for seven before Migael Pretorius held up Surrey with 54 but it was only delaying the inevitable.
Somerset had dismissed Surrey for 367 an hour into the third day but were soon in trouble.
The visitors lost Archie Vaughan to the sixth ball of the innings thanks to a good catch by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who dived full length when Vaughan leg-glanced Worrall.
With Sean Dickson unable to bat because of a hand injury sustained on the opening day, Josh Davey came in at three and he and Tom Lammonby did well to get through the rest of Worrall’s five-over opening spell. Davey, who batted at ten in the first innings, appeared to relish the extra responsibility when he took two boundaries off Gus Atkinson in an over with a straight drive and a sweetly timed clip through mid-wicket.
The stand was eventually broken in off-spinner Dan Lawrence’s first over when he skidded his fifth ball into Lammonby’s pads.
Tom Abell clipped the first ball of the afternoon session from Jordan Clark off middle stump to fine leg for four but shouldered arms to the next delivery and lost his off stump. Davey (17) unluckily played on two balls later and in the next over Dan Worrall dived low to his left to intercept a full-blooded drive by Tom Banton in his follow through which was followed by an elaborate celebration.
It got worse for Somerset. They were 38 for six in the 18th over after Kasey Aldridge’s attempted pull at Clark cannoned off the bottom edge into his stumps. Worrall struck again in his next over when James Rew’s clip off his pads was caught by the diving Lawrence at backward square leg to leave Somerset staring down the barrel at 38 for seven.
Pretorius kept them waiting with an attacking 54 off 45 balls, including eight fours, as he and skipper Lewis Gregory put on 79 for the eighth wicket and it took a fine one-handed catch by Foakes to break the stand and give James Taylor a deserved wicket. Taylor finished the innings when he had Jack Leach caught at slip.
Dom Sibley was caught at square leg by Lammonby off Aldridge and Ollie Pope played across a straight ball from Davey before Jamie Smith hit the winning boundary to mid-wicket.
At the start of the day, Surrey’s final three wickets added a further 46 runs. Lawrence followed up his 117 against Sussex last week with an unbeaten 55 off 74 balls with seven fours as Pretorius, Davey and Aldridge took a wicket apiece.
At the close of play, Somerset Head Coach said: “It’s hard to describe what happened after lunch, because it was still a good pitch to bat on but there can be no excuses for it. It’s one of the things we have just talked about in the dressing room – if you want to be a successful side you can’t afford collapses like that.
“I take all the responsibility. In my position comes accountability – you get no credit when the sides does well and all the accountability when they don’t perform. I know how hard the guys are working and how good they are as individuals but today was nowhere near good enough.”
