Tom Bailey (4-63) took four wickets in seven balls to
inspire a Lancashire revival in the evening session against Somerset after Tom
Abell’s career-best 135 put the visitors in a commanding position at Old Trafford.
Somerset slumped from 267/2 to 287/7 in the space of five
overs after Abell shared big partnerships with Marcus Trescothick (60) and
captain Chris Rogers (47) with Bailey’s new-ball spell bringing Lancashire back
into the match. However, with Lancashire enjoying a rampant resurgence, Peter
Trego steered Somerset to 339/7 at close of play with a quickfire 49 off 40
balls.
Lancashire’s decision to bowl first in the dank overcast
conditions backfired when three rain delays inside the first half hour of the
day prevented the Red Rose from exploiting prime bowling conditions.
Trescothick and Abell then settled in on what turned out to be a reasonably
friendly batting track, sharing 134 runs for the opening wicket either side of
lunch.
Trescothick reached 1,000 first-class runs for the season in
the early stages of the day, with the truncated start to proceedings allowing
only 23 overs to be bowled in the morning session. The veteran opening batsman
– who is on the verge of becoming Somerset’s most prolific century-maker – led
a watchful start in the morning session for his side in testing conditions,
before opening up after lunch alongside Abell.
The combination of young and old worked wonders for Somerset
– as it has all season in red-ball cricket – as the duo achieved their ninth
fifty-partnership together for the opening stand before the interval, with
Abell emerging with a more fluent approach after lunch.
Trescothick reached his
half-century in 80 deliveries shortly after the break, but Abell was not far
behind him with a 92-ball fifty, with his ninth boundary also brining up the
hundred-partnership inside the 31st over.
Having scored the 60th hundred of his first-class
career against Lancashire earlier in the season at Taunton, Trescothick went in
pursuit of advancing beyond Harold Gimblett’s record of 49 career centuries for
Somerset and, until he was caught superbly on the boundary by Simon Kerrigan,
it looked as though he would go on to achieve a half-century of hundreds for
the west country outfit.
Trescothick fell for 60 when Kerrigan’s back-peddling effort
at deep square-leg off Jordan Clark (2-37) broke an accomplished opening stand,
with his terrific catch bringing Lancashire a long overdue breakthrough.
Respite for Lancashire was brief owing to Abell’s ever-increasing confidence at
the crease, with the 22-year-old hitting Kerrigan for three boundaries in the
same over.
Rogers and Abell shared another 48
runs before tea to take Somerset to 182/1, with the latter surviving a
vociferous appeal for caught behind off the final ball of the session. The
promising youngster came into the evening session unbeaten on 97, with his 16th boundary taking him to his second century of the summer in 185 balls.
This
milestone coincided with the fifty-partnership with Rogers, who demonstrated
tremendous sportsmanship on 47 when he edged Clark down the leg-side to Steven
Croft, with the Australian batsman walking after the umpire had not initially
given him out.
For the next half an hour,
Lancashire dominated their opponents with a rampant spell of bowling, as Bailey
prospered with the second new ball to leave Somerset with a testing conclusion
to the opening day. Bailey, who has not played for Lancashire since picking up
an injury against Yorkshire at the end of May, struck in his first over with
the new ball when he forced James Hildreth (27) to edge to Alviro Petersen at
second slip at 273/4.
He then claimed three wickets in
his next over and he could have had a hat-trick if Toby Lester had held on to a
stunner at mid-wicket. A wicket with the fifth ball of a new spell was followed
by the dismissal of Jim Allenby (1), with Petersen holding on in the slips once
again to give Bailey his second scalp in the space of three deliveries.
Abell departed three balls later
for a career-best 135, edging behind to Croft at 274/5, with Lewis Gregory
falling for a golden duck when he was trapped lbw to become Bailey’s fourth
victim in seven balls. Somerset’s collapse peaked at five wickets for 20 runs
in the space of five overs when Kyle Jarvis (1-78) forced Craig Overton to chop
on to his stumps for nine, but Trego’s counterpunch tilted proceedings back in
favour of the away side.
Trego hit nine boundaries during
his important innings of 49 from 40 deliveries, sharing a fifty-partnership
with Ryan Davies (8*) in 49 balls to help Somerset reach stumps on 339/7.
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