Picture by Harry Trump/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root shared a 60-run partnership for the fourth wicket either side of lunch.
Yorkshire lost their last seven wickets for 38 runs after lunch to be bowled out for 162 against Somerset at Taunton, with home captain Lewis Gregory starring with 6-43 amidst a strong home performance on day one which also included a maiden century for opener Josh Thomas.
The White Rose were looking in encouraging order at 115-3 at lunch during a gloomy first half of the opening day of the Rothesay County Championship fixture at the Cooper Associates County Ground. Captain Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root were at the crease and playing nicely.
Unfortunately, though, both fell – Root bowled via an inside-edge and pad by Gregory for 33 and Bairstow caught behind off Craig Overton for 34. Not long afterwards, Yorkshire had been bowled out inside 44 overs. Fin Bean’s 35 marked their top score of the innings.
Fledgling left-hander Thomas then recorded his maiden century in first-class cricket to help Somerset recover from 35-3 to close on 201-3 from 50 overs, a lead of 39. Thomas finished unbeaten on 136 off 150 balls and shared an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 166 with former captain Tom Abell, 41.
Yorkshire were inserted on a green pitch which local knowledge suggests will improve throughout the four days.
They were forced into one change because of a testicular injury suffered by Australian Sam Whiteman during last weekend’s draw against Sussex at Headingley, hit by the seamer Henry Crocombe whilst batting en-route to a first-innings century.
James Wharton came back into the side and batted at three.
Wharton was actually one of three early wickets to fall as the score fell to 64-3 inside 20 overs.
Picture by Harry Trump/Getty Images. Joe Root is playing his second Championship match of three for Yorkshire ahead of the start of the home international summer.
Adam Lyth was trapped lbw by the left-arm seam of Alfie Ogborne before Wharton, playing back on nought, edged Gregory behind, where James Rew took a smart one-handed catch diving to his right.
Bean, on the back of his ton against Sussex, was next to go when he pushed forwards at the South African overseas seamer Migael Pretorius on that aforementioned 35.
Root and Bairstow then united to share 60 either side of lunch, and both started impressively, with no indication of the mayhem which was to follow.
Bairstow crashed a trio of boundaries through the covers and pulled one viciously off Pretorius, while Root pushed a trio of boundaries down the ground off Ogborne.
With the score at 115-3 at lunch, the hope was that they’d push on afterwards and put Yorkshire in a commanding position despite tricky conditions. There was a bit of seam and plenty of swing.
But it wasn’t to be.
Root and Bairstow were first to go after lunch.
Root was bowled pushing forwards at Gregory, with a combination of inside-edge and pad onto stumps doing for the England star, leaving the score at 124-4 in the 31st.
Picture by Harry Trump/Getty Images. Somerset captain Lewis Gregory set up his side’s impressive day one at Taunton today.
Bairstow followed when, defending, he inside-edged a back of a length ball from Craig Overton behind to Rew – 140-5 in the 36th.
Bairstow had earlier been dropped at second slip by Overton, who had also dropped Wharton this morning the ball before he departed.
Then, Gregory really got on a roll to change the direction of the day.
He bowled Matthew Revis as he left alone, trapped Dom Bess lbw stuck on the crease and then had Logan van Beek caught at third slip by a juggling Archie Vaughan. All of that came in the 37th over, a triple wicket maiden, and Yorkshire were 142-8.
In the 41st over, a full in-swinger bowled Jhye Richardson before George Hill, now trying to attack having run out of partners, top-edged a pull at Overton out to deep square-leg to fall for 18 and wrap up the innings.
Hill had ramped a six over the wicketkeeper’s head in Overton’s previous over.
In the early stages of their response, Somerset took the score to 63-3 at tea, meaning the afternoon had yielded 10 wickets in all.
Opener Thomas had moved to 36, the day’s highest score. But he had lost Archie Vaughan, Tom Lammonby and the much-talked about England hopeful James Rew, whose younger brother Thomas is making his Championship debut in this match.
Picture by Harry Trump/Getty Images. Jhye Richardson claimed the first wicket of the Somerset second innings.
Vaughan was the first to go when caught behind defending at White, who later had James Rew well caught by Bean at third slip as Hill from fourth dived across him. Sandwiched in between, Richardson trapped left-handed Lammonby lbw with an in-swinger. All fell for single-figure scores, including wicketkeeper-batter Rew for seven.
Weather wise, things brightened up through the latter stages of the afternoon, and 21-year-old Thomas was just starting to assert himself.
He reached his second career Championship fifty off 54 balls in the early stages of the evening, by which stage Abell was starting to settle.
On 10, Thomas had edged Richardson between keeper Bairstow and Root at first slip.
Thomas later pulled Revis for six over mid-wicket to move to 90 and bring up the century stand with Abell at 136-3 in the 36th over.
Thomas, a Somerset Academy product, accelerated through the nineties and reached a 109-ball century, by which stage his side were 150-3 inside the day’s last 15 overs.
While Abell played second fiddle to an increasingly confident Thomas, it was him who hit Bess’s off-spin for six over long-on to take Somerset into the lead.
They then made it through to close without alarm, and Yorkshire have it all to do across the next three days.
