Tykes in strong position after another Lyth century

Centurion Adam Lyth enjoys playing against Somerset at Taunton.

The Yorkshire left-hander yesterday scored his second hundred in five LV County Championship matches on this ground to put his side in a commanding position at the halfway stage of the contest on 341-5 from 95 overs.

Tuesday's opening day being washed out without a ball bowled has not helped Yorkshire's cause as they search for a fourth Championship win of the season, but it is far from an impossible task against a confidence shorn Somerset outfit who have not won in six this summer.

They only need to look back at what happened at Headingley approximately three weeks ago to know just how quickly Somerset can fold.

Having been bowled out for 252 in their first innings in reply to Yorkshire's 505, they were reduced to 48-6 during the latter stages of day four as the hosts tried to beat them and the weather.

Yesterday, Lyth's 105 off 158 balls and Andrew Gale's encouraging 75 off 188 were the main contributions, while Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid also added 48 and 47 not out respectively.

There were four partnerships of 61 or more in the Yorkshire innings after Gale had won the toss, with the visitors having to recover from 2-1 after eight balls on a pitch which graduated from a tacky one early on into a belter for batting on according to Lyth.

Somerset's seamers were aided by some lateral movement off the pitch, but they were extremely inconsistent and were hurt by the absence of injured or rested pace trio Alfonso Thomas and Jamie and Craig Overton.

And Yorkshire capitalised after losing opener Joe Sayers caught at second slip by Marcus Trescothick off Steve Kirby's second ball.

This was Lyth's ninth Championship innings at Taunton, and he has now scored 504 runs including two hundreds and two fifties here at an average of 56.

He shared 80 for the second wicket with Phil Jaques and 103 for the third with Gale, who posted his highest score in the Championship since last May. Gale also added 80 for the fourth wicket with Ballance before both fell in the space of four overs after tea.

Given that it is nearly two years since his last Championship century, Gale was particularly frustrated when he chopped on to Peter Trego to leave the score at 280-5 in the 83rd over.

Lyth would also have felt the same when he pulled Gemaal Hussain straight to Trego at mid-on after lunch when he could have hit a short ball anywhere he wanted.

The first of Lyth's hundreds here was his 142 in May 2010, the summer he could do no wrong and became the first man in the country to score 1,000 first-class runs in early June.

"I didn't feel like I was going to get out that summer," he reflected last night. He did not look like he was going to get out yesterday either.

Rashid and Andrew Hodd (24 not out) will resume their sixth-wicket stand of 61 this morning as Yorkshire look to press on beyond 400.

SCORECARD

Somerset v Yorkshire
At Taunton. Yorkshire Won Toss

Yorkshire First Innings Close
A Lyth c Trego b Hussain....................105
J J Sayers c Trescothick b Kirby ........... 1
P A Jaques c Barrow b Hussain ...........26
A W Gale b Trego ................................75
G S Ballance c Barrow b Dockrell .........48
A U Rashid not out .............................47
A J Hodd not out ................................24
Extras (lb10 w1 nb4 pens 0)....15
Total 5 wkts (95 overs)...........341
Fall: 1-2 2-82 3-185 4-265 5-280
To Bat: R M Pyrah, R J Sidebottom, S A
Patterson, Moin Ashraf.
Bowling: Trego 21-4-73-1. Kirby 19-2-71-
1. Meschede 13-0-65-0. Hussain 17-0-67-
2. Dockrell 19-5-40-1. Elgar 6-2-15-0