Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s unbeaten 68 in his first LV= Insurance County Championship game of the season kept Yorkshire in the hunt during the second day against Somerset at Taunton.
Dom Bess completed an impressive 4-68 from 29 overs of off-spin against his former county, who made a first-innings 424 on the stroke of tea on an overcast West Country day.
Jack Brooks, against his former county – a two-time Championship winner with Yorkshire, then claimed three wickets to stymie a reply which was going along nicely.
He struck twice in two balls as the visitors slipped to 129-4 in the 33rd over, and they later closed on 167-4 from 45.
The Yorkshire-Somerset links in this game are very strong. Kohler-Cadmore is playing against the county he will join this winter on a three-year deal.
He has missed the early stages of the four-day campaign as he manages the concussion injury he suffered in the winter. But is back in red ball action again.
And he impressed, sharing 74 for the third wicket with Harry Brook, who made 41 before falling as one of the three wickets for Brooks.
The day started with Bess completing his four-for and Matthew Waite finishing with three wickets on a slow Taunton pitch.
Bess added two wickets to his haul today as Somerset, who resumed on 262-5, were bowled out in the latter stages of the afternoon, forcing tea approximately 25 minutes early.
After Waite trapped Tom Abell lbw for 116 before lunch, Lewis Gregory led his side’s progress towards 400, sharing 90 for the seventh wicket either side of lunch with fellow all-rounder Kasey Aldridge.
Eleven overs were lost from the day’s allotted 104 because of a near 45-minute rain delay from just before midday.
Gregory was not without fortune, as a number of his boundaries were edged wide of or through the slips.
Bess and Waite (3-64 from 28) were the pick of the Yorkshire bowlers.
Four wickets fell during the afternoon, which Somerset started on 324-6.
Gregory was the first afternoon wicket when he miscued Bess to long-on, where Adam Lyth took the catch – 376-7 in the 113th over.
England spinner Jack Leach hit sixes off Bess and fellow off-spinner Jack Shutt, the latter a reverse slog sweep over deep point, in 16 as the hosts tried to up the scoring rate after claiming a fourth batting point for passing 350 inside 110 overs.
Yorkshire finished with two bowling points.
Leach was stumped off Shutt’s bowling, the first of two wickets in as many overs as Brooks was caught behind off Bess for one, leaving Somerset 404-9 in the 119th over.
The innings was ended after Aldridge and last man Marchant de Lange added 20 inside four overs for the last wicket – Aldridge bowled by Shannon Gabriel for a career best 41.
Adam Lyth edged a drive at former team-mate Brooks to Abell in the gully, falling for 13 as Yorkshire’s reply fell to 23-1 in its sixth over.
Kohler-Cadmore then lofted prospective team-mate Leach down the ground for two sixes, one straight into the sight screen and the other over long-off and into the top tier of the Colin Atkinson pavilion.
At that stage, the 27-year-old had 27 of 66-2 after 21 overs.
Sandwiched in between his sixes, however, was the departure of George Hill to England Test left-armer Leach, leaving Yorkshire at 55-2 in the 15th.
Having hit Leach down the ground for four the ball before, Hill used his feet again and miscued high towards deep cover.
Australian Matt Renshaw, who started the day by pinching the PA announcer’s microphone and introducing a couple of early Yorkshire bowling changes, ran around from mid-off and completed a smart diving catch as Hill departed for 19.
Brook later took 16 off de Lange in the 26th over, pulling two sixes and driving a four as the score moved to 92-2.
Kohler-Cadmore and Brook shared 74 for the third wicket, and Yorkshire’s reply was looking a commanding one as a real feature of their partnership was the determination not to let England’s Leach settle.
He conceded 55 in his first 10 overs and was the victim of four of the six sixes which Yorkshire hit.
However, things changed in the 33rd over when Brooks struck twice in as many balls as Yorkshire fell to 129-4.
Brook clipped to a diving Aldridge at mid-wicket before Matthew Revis, elevated up the order to five, was trapped lbw – stuck on the crease – first ball.
Kohler-Cadmore reached an 86-ball fifty, including four fours and as many sixes, shortly afterwards.
With 10 overs remaining in the day, Yorkshire had reached 151-4 with Kohler-Cadmore and Waite in partnership.
Kohler-Cadmore finished with six fours and four sixes in 112 balls, and Waite will begin day three on 16. A further two overs were lost at the end of the day due to bad light.
