County Cricket Somerset takes charge on day two
Specsavers County Championship Division One, Cooper Associates County Ground (day two):
Somerset 199 & 269-5: Abell 62, Hildreth 58
Yorkshire 103: Ballance 35; Van der Merwe 3-14
Somerset (3 pts) lead Yorkshire (3 pts) by 365 runs
Somerset celebrated a good day with both bat and ball:
With the help of spinner Roelof van der Merwe taking three quick wickets, it did not take too long for Yorkshire to fall from 86-3 to 103 runs all out before lunch, The first-innings deficit of 96 runs.
Utilizing their home advantage, Somerset pressed on steadfastly to close on 269-5 with the lead of 365 runs with two days remaining for the match.
James Hildreth (56) and Tom Banton (43) took control of the game as captain Tom Abell starred with a magnificent 62 for the favour of Somerset.
An aggressive unbroken stand of 78 runs between Lewis Gregory and George Bartlett further took the game away from Yorkshire before the play ended early because of bad light.
If the division one leaders, Essex loses their match at Warwickshire, Somerset will take their place at the top after winning the game against Yorkshire. On the other hand, if Yorkshire loses the game, their goal of achieving the 34th County Championship will be left incomplete.
Roelof van der Merwe had an amazing day, he took 3 wickets by conceding only 14 runs for Somerset while on the other hand, the seamers, Lewis Gregory (2-36) and Josh Davey (3-30) made sure Yorkshire collapses.
Somerset openers Steven Davies and Murali Vijay both got out early and left Somerset hanging on the score of 4-2 but the outstanding third-wicket stand of 117 runs between James Hildreth and Abell propelled Somerset towards victory.
Abell got lbw by Tim Bresnan just after reaching his second half-century of the match, but Gregory and Bartlett made sure the score doesn’t come to a halt by smacking several boundaries after tea to put Somerset on the high ground.
Somerset’s Captain:
Somerset skipper Tom Abell looked quite confident as he explained that his role was to just bat for as long as possible and let others play around him in both innings. Tom Abell expressed that the pitch was a bit slow and slightly difficult to bat on and also there is also spin on the pitch but things feel easier if u get a partnership going. The Somerset captain also complimented James Hildreth for taking charge of the game even though he went to bat at a very difficult stage of the game where the Somerset’s score was just 4-2 at the beginning. Tom Abell looked assured that their side is the one taking control of the game against Yorkshire at the end of the day.
Yorkshire’s Coach:
Yorkshire’s batting coach Paul Grayson accepted that the day was tough for their side as they had a stable position in the game but this morning Somerset’s bowlers bowled really well in bowler-friendly conditions and that they were unable to fight back after Somerset took down a couple of early wickets. Paul Grayson praised Somerset that they caught up well and bowled very skillfully against Yorkshire. Paul stated that their side intends to bat better in the second innings of the game against Somerset. Paul also stated that Will Fraine will hopefully come out to bat at some stage but he won’t be opening as he was off the field for some time.
Somerset is in a very strong position in the game and is very likely to achieve victory against Yorkshire but Yorkshire is also pretty determined to fight back and win the match.
