Day Three
Somerset v Yorkshire
LV County Championship

YORKSHIRE still have an outside chance of forcing what would be another stunning LV County Championship victory over Somerset at Taunton today following a dominant day with bat and ball.

It is imperative that the White Rose county bowl the hosts out before they reach the follow-on target of 301 after they closed yesterday’s third day on 232-6 from 72 overs of their first innings, of which Marcus Trescothick made 74 and James Hildreth 76 not out.

The notable Yorkshire contributions came from Adil Rashid and Adam Lyth.

Rashid continued his amazing run of form with the bat by reaching 103 not out in a first-innings total of 450-5 declared before lunch, the allrounder’s third century in his last three Championship innings.

With the light closing on after tea, Lyth was introduced into the attack and struck twice in two balls with his rarely used off-spinners as Somerset slipped to 172-6.

It was just unfortunate that Hildreth and Craig Meschede frustrated them during the latter stages of the day with an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 60 inside 19 overs.

Yorkshire have turned heads with the manner of their wins against Durham, Derbyshire and Warwickshire, and this would be a result of similar magnitude given that the first day was completely washed out.

As Rashid said while reflecting on his exploits and the match situation, “funny things can happen in cricket”.

“We’ve got 450 on the board and them at 230-odd for six, which I think is a great effort.

Hopefully we can get the last four wickets quickly and role them over again,” he said.

“They’re still a long way away from that (follow-on target), and all we need is one wicket and we’re into the tail.

Then you never know, you can go bang, bang, bang. They could be 290 all out and going out there again under pressure.”

Given the batsman-friendly conditions, it would be a surprise to see the White Rose take another 14 wickets today.

But it is certainly by no means impossible.

Rashid, who also caused problems during 17 wicketless overs of leg-spin, was excellent with the bat during his 120-ball stay at the crease, including 14 fours.

He has now scored 504 runs in five matches this season at a jaw-dropping average of 252.

The 25-year-old all-rounder shared an unbroken sixthwicket stand of 144 in 31 overs with Andrew Hodd, whose 68 not out was his best score in a Yorkshire shirt.

They batted through the first hour and a half of play yesterday morning on the way to securing a fifth batting bonus point for posting 400 inside 110 overs, a target which they reached with only one ball to spare.

“I’m feeling that hunger to perform and perform again,” added Rashid. “I want to push on and get a hundred or 150. The key is not being satisfied with a fifty.”

Steve Patterson then struck twice, Rich Pyrah and Ryan Sidebottom once and Lyth twice. He forced Alex Barrow to play on and had Peter Trego caught and bowled. Lyth had only been brought into the attack after tea due to fading light.

Patterson had Arul Suppiah and Lewis Gregory lbw before Pyrah removed Trescothick the same way.

Sidebottom had South African Test player Dean Elgar caught at point as he cut a short ball straight to Rashid. The batsman was furious at falling to what he later described as “a pie of a delivery”.

Lyth then took only his fourth and fifth wickets in first-class cricket.

SCORECARD

Somerset v Yorkshire
At Taunton.
Overnight: Yorkshire 341-5 (A Lyth 105, A
W Gale 75).

Yorkshire First Innings
A U Rashid not out ..............................103
A J Hodd not out ................................68
Extras (b2 lb13 w1 nb8 pens 0) ....24
Total 5 wkts dec (116.2 overs) ....450
Fall: 1-2 2-82 3-185 4-265 5-280
Did Not Bat: R M Pyrah, R J Sidebottom, S
A Patterson, Moin Ashraf.
Bowling: Trego 26-5-87-1. Kirby 25-2-100-
1. Meschede 14-0-75-0. Hussain 25-0-106-
2. Dockrell 20.2-5-52-1. Elgar 6-2-15-0.

Somerset First Innings Close
M E Trescothick lbw b Pyrah ................74
A V Suppiah lbw b Patterson ............... 5
L Gregory lbw b Patterson .................. 3
D Elgar c A U Rashid b Sidebottom .....28
J C Hildreth not out ............................76
A W Barrow b Lyth ..............................26
P D Trego c & b Lyth ........................... 0
C A Meschede not out .......................16
Extras (b2 lb2 pens 0) ...............4
Total 6 wkts (72 overs)...........232
Fall: 1-32 2-52 3-103 4-120 5-172 6-172
To Bat: G H Dockrell, S P Kirby, G M
Hussain.
Bowling: Sidebottom 18-7-38-1. Patterson
16-6-48-2. A U Rashid 17-3-50-0. Ashraf
10-1-51-0. Pyrah 8-3-26-1. Lyth 3-0-15-2.