Somerset fight back but rain intervenes again

Somerset v Essex – Specsavers County Championship Division One – Taunton – Day Two – Summary

Somerset 203 (68.4 overs)
Essex 25/0 (11.0 overs)
Somerset won the toss and elected to bat

SOMERSET ensured the Specsavers County Championship title race will go right to the wire after digging deep with the bat on day two at Taunton.

Rain, wickets and then more rain had left leaders, Essex, very much in charge of proceedings

The wet conditions had brought day one to an early conclusion and it caused further delays as the groundstaff grappled heroicly to ensure cricket resumed an hour and a half later than scheduled on day two.

Resuming their overnight tally of 75/4, the hosts slumped to 130/8, before the tail gave a resounding wag, announcing Somerset’s intentions to soldier on.

Tom Abell’s 45 appeared to be the highlight for the home side. But tailer Roelof van der Merwe played quite beautifully for his 60, while Jack Leach chipped in with an unbeaten 11 to ensure Somerset a bowling point.

Essex had themselves earned three bowling points, largely thanks to Simon Harmer’s 5/105 and Sam Cook’s superb 4/26.

Faced with batting in ever-increasingly tricky conditions, Essex had reached 25 without loss – Nick Browne 16, Sir Alastair Cook 5 – before the rain returned, causing another early conclusion. Play will resume on Wednesday at 10:30am.

Somerset: Murali Vijay, Steve Davies (WK), Tom Abell (Capt), James Hildreth, Tom Banton, George Bartlett, Lewis Gregory, Dom Bess, Craig Overton, Roelof van der Merwe, Jack Leach

Essex: Nick Browne, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley, Dan Lawrence, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate (Capt), Adam Wheater (WK), Simon Harmer, Aron Nijjar, Jamie Porter, Sam Cook

Umpires/Officials: Robert Bailey, Alexander Wharf, Neil Bainton

Look out for #YellowSports summary of every day’s play involving Essex County Cricket