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Sean continues impressive form on day one
Sean Dickson picked up where he left off on Saturday by top scoring again for Somerset on the opening day of this LV= Insurance County Championship match at Northamptonshire.
Dickson’s contributions with the bat were crucial to Somerset’s Vitality Blast success at Edgbaston at the weekend, and again he showed his class today as the visitors secured three batting points.
Jack White was the pick of the home attack, claiming five for 77.
Valuable contributions also came from George Bartlett (55), Lewis Gregory (48), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (43) and Craig Overton (40 not out) ensured that Somerset were dismissed for 351 on the stroke of stumps.
Dickson added 102 with Tom Abell, while Gregory and Overton plundered a valuable 81 for the eighth wicket.
White struck early after Northamptonshire skipper Luke Proctor invited Somerset to bat first, though he needed a stroke of luck to do so. White found bounce from just short of a length to square up Tom Lammonby who was given out caught behind, though replays suggested the ball had come off the thigh pad.
Dickson regularly walked down the wicket to negate the seam movement, and he attacked when he could, clouting one overpitched ball from White over deep midwicket for six.
As White and Sanderson gave way Dickson picked up the pace and Abell despatched Tom Taylor to the fence twice in one over. Dickson’s second Championship 50 of the season came up shortly before lunch, swiftly followed by the 100-partnership.
White was back in the game immediately after lunch, bowling Abell with one which snuck between bat and pad to uproot the off-stump. Dickson too was not to last much longer. Having played a lovely back foot punch to the cover fence, he poked at one from White and Emilio Gay took the catch at second slip.
Bartlett played elegantly, driving well, especially off the back foot whilst at the other end Tom Kohler-Cadmore chanced his arm, twice hitting the ball back over the bowler’s head and inside edging another past his leg stump. His luck ran out with tea approaching when he hoisted Sanderson into the deep, only for substitute fielder George Weldon to produce a diving catch at deep square.
Bartlett moved to 50 before the interval but became White’s fourth victim the other side of tea, gloving one down the leg-side into the hands of a diving McManus and a second five-for of the season was secured soon afterwards when Kasey Aldridge was pinned in front.
Rew, failed to repeat his double century heroics of last week, edging through to McManus to give Justin Broad a maiden First Class wicket, meaning four wickets had fallen for 46 runs either side of tea.
There was though a final twist in the day, Gregory and Overton arresting the slump as the home bowlers tired in the evening sunshine.
At the close of play, Sean Dickson said: “We’re ecstatic (with 350). I think it is the best outcome we’ve had all season. It is a difficult batting wicket, and I thought the guys applied themselves really well.
“If we can learn anything from their bowling innings, it would be they bowled a bit too short. So if we can come out and get them driving we are going to really test their defence tomorrow.
“It was my day today. You get a bit lucky. You play and miss a lot, get those nicks which just drop short and lbws you get little inside edges onto them. It was my day, it’s my time at the moment and it’s a wave I’m going to keep riding.
“Getting in on this wicket was probably the hardest bit, and there is always a ball with your name on with wickets like this. They bowled a bit too short and gave us the opportunity to score a lot more than what we should have.
“We believe 351 is well above a par score. We believe in ourselves to go and bowl them out twice here and not have to bat again. You can’t look too far ahead, but it would be nice to come out tomorrow and really set our mark on this game.”
