Trego completes demolition job on Yorkshire

Yorkshire declared with a mammoth lead of 475 which proved insufficient as Peter Trego mauled the Tykes attack with a brilliant 54-ball hundred.

“You’ve got to give them credit”, said director of cricket Martyn Moxon. “But we missed our lines and lengths more than I would have liked and in the end didn’t handle Trego as well as we could have.”

“There are a lot of players in that dressing room who are ready for a few days off,”

he added.

“It’ll do us good to go away and clear our heads before the Durham game but it’s going to be a tough battle for the rest of the summer, without doubt.”

Trego crashed nine sixes and six fours in his unbeaten 103, an unforgettable stay at the crease that dragged Somerset to victory with four overs to spare.

Marcus Trescothick (96) and Arul Suppiah (131) had earlier laid the foundations with an outstanding opening stand of 187 before Somerset captain Justin Langer kept himself in the pavilion and sent in two big hitters to keep the required rate in and around the six-per-over mark.

James Hildreth made a quickfire 50 in the first innings but he ended up in a surprise supporting role to David Stiff, who took out his frustrations from a belowpar performance with the ball to reach 49 from just 32 balls, with four boundaries and as many maximums.

Stiff eventually edged behind to Jonathan Bairstow to finally bring Langer to the crease but, after Craig Kieswetter went quickly for 19, it was Trego who drastically thrust Somerset into the ascendancy with an incredible show of pinch-hitting to take the home side within reach of a stunning win.

Azeem Rafiq and Ajmal Shahzad went for 42 runs from only one over apiece as Trego reached his half-century from just 28 balls, with five fours and four sixes.

Yorkshire were reeling but the wicket of Langer, with Somerset still 62 runs short on 414 for six, ensured that all results remained possible heading into the final ten overs.

Matthew Hoggard took eight wickets in the match and Anthony McGrath turned to him to slow down the Somerset charge, but at the other end Steve Patterson found himself hammered for back-to-back sixes over deep mid-wicket by Trego to take the hosts inside 25 runs of victory with seven overs still remaining.

Zander de Bruyn stood his ground and watched on as Trego rattled his final six to level the scores before a De Bruyn boundary finished the job in light rain that turned into a violent downpour moments later, too late for the Tykes, who are left to ponder the prospect of another battle with relegation.

Scoreboard

Somerset v Yorkshire At Taunton

Overnight: Somerset 326 (M E Trescothick 146, J C Hildreth 51; M JHoggard 5-82). Yorkshire 438 (J A Rudolph 191; D A Stiff 4-92) and 329-5 (JJ Sayers 152, A Lyth 71, J M Bairstow 54 no).

Yorkshire Second Innings

J M Bairstow not out ...........................66

A Shahzad not out .............................16

Extras (b1 lb3 w3 nb10 pens 0) ..17

Total 5 wkts dec (96.5 overs)..363

Fall: 1-0 2-58 3-181 4-221 5-329

Did Not Bat: Azeem Rafiq, M J Hoggard, S A Patterson.

Bowling: Willoughby 19-6-39-2. Thomas 13- 1-63-1. Caddick 15-4-45-0. Suppiah 27.5-4- 99-0. Trego 6-0-34-0. Stiff 11-0-52-1. de Bruyn 5-0-27-1.

Somerset Second Innings

M E Trescothick b Hoggard .................96

A V Suppiah c McGrath b Rafiq ...........131

J C Hildreth b Hoggard .......................18

D A Stiff c Bairstow b Hoggard ..............49

J L Langer c Bairstow b Patterson ........24

C Kieswetter b Rafiq ...........................17

P D Trego not out ..............................103

Z de Bruyn not out .............................27

Extras (b1 lb7 w2 nb4 pens 0) ....14

Total 6 wkts (85.3 overs).........479

Fall: 1-187 2-246 3-292 4-307 5-338 6- 414. Did Not Bat: A C Thomas, A R Caddick, C M Willoughby.

Total Bonus Pts: Somerset 6 Yorkshire 8 Hoggard 24-0-118-3. Shahzad 19-1-119-0.

Patterson 21-2-98-1. Lee 6-0-50-0. Rafiq 14.3-0-72-2. Rudolph 1-0-14-0.

Somerset (20pts) beat Yorkshire (8pts) by 4 wickets.