Somerset V Gloucestershire, County Championship Group 2, April 15th to 19th 2021 Day 2 Somerset 312, lead Gloucestershire 301-8 by 11 runs.
Yesterday was a day when neither side maintained any advantage for any length of time. The second day proved equally fascinating by the end of it there is nothing to separate these two fierce west country rivals.
This was cricket for the purist tough, uncompromising but never dull. A combination of a Gloucestershire batting line up which after an early flourish by the openers settled into accumulation mode and a high-quality Somerset bowling attack which, apart from an out-of-sorts Lewis Gregory, was unwilling to give the batsmen any margin for error.
The beauty of Championship cricket is this very lack of instant gratification. Days like this where rewards don’t come easy but re all the more exhilarating when they do. This was a day that the passionate but knowledgeable Taunton crowd would have been thoroughly absorbed in throughout, the empty stands leaving a cavernous void in all our hearts.
The desire to support this Somerset side is, if anything, enhanced by our prolonged absence (now 568 days) as the viewing figures for the first day testify.
The cricket was played put without that wonderful aural element of the Taunton crowd’s interaction with the play. Not just Tractor’s frequent exhortations to Craig to “come on” or the Somerset side as a whole but equally that wonderful hum that accompanies each session. Close your eyes and allow that experience to wash over you while following the live stream, I did several times today. It’s wonderful.
Despite the encouragement of the devoted Somerset’s bowlers stuck wonderfully to their task. This for me was the sort of day that explains why they have been so good for so long in this competition and demonstrates that they have genuine title aspirations this season.
The variety in a bowling attack of four right arm pace bowlers would surprise those who do not watch this side regularly. Josh Davey, the unassuming unsung hero rarely bowls a bad ball, possesses guile and craft which improves season on season and is far more than a foil to Craig.
Overton and de Lange are both very tall muscular operators but whereas de Lange (a former javelin thrower) is all brutal muscle Craig is smoother and more aesthetically pleasing. Both are able to extract life and bounce from an older ball on an unhelpful surface and both possess bags of aggression on the field.
And then there is Jack Leach who looked every inch a world class bowler on a day which did not lend itself to finger spin. Anthony Gibson believes that Leach is bowling with a little more pace this season something that is hard to tell on screen. What was clear though is that there is a new found confidence in Taunton Deane’s finest that he is master of the situation and has the confidence to dictate the pace at which the game is played.
Leach can squeeze the scoring rate to such an extent, even in these unhelpful conditions. Despite Scott’s heave into the River Stand for 6 his economy rate was well under two throughout the day.
Gloucestershire had James Bracey to thank for a substantial part of their total. He added 46 with his captain for the second wicket before Dent became De Lange’s first Somerset wicket for exactly 50. This was Dent’s third consecutive half century of the season but I couldn’t watch him bat for Somerset for long without him doing serious damage to my resting heart rate.
Bracey on the other hand looked assured throughout despite the succession of partners who departed. At tea he was unbeaten on 79 and crucial to Gloucestershire’s hopes of seeing off the imminent new ball and getting his side to parity on first innings. That he achieved this and has put his side right in this contest is a fitting reward for this most talented young wicket keeper batsman.
I wrote a note to myself at tea that with the new ball only 13 overs away the Somerset strategy had to bowl with control to that point and then aim to wrap the innings up with the new cherry. I’d have gone for spells from Josh Davey and Jack Leach before trying a new new-ball combination of Craig and Marchant.
Tom Abell opted to bring Lewis back, clearly backing his Devonian all-rounder to produce a spell more in keeping with his huge talent. Abell got his reward with Lewis removing Scott, who apart from that six had been rendered almost shotless since tea, thanks to a wonderful catch from Craig at second slip. 203-7.
The new ball was taken as soon as available with Gloucestershire still 95 in arrears and a reasonable prospect of a 50+ run first innings lead. But in increasingly unpleasantly cold conditions, which seemed to affect the Somerset bowlers Bracy found an ally in Jack Taylor. The pair added 71 before Bracey, by now a centurion, departed to a neat Hildreth catch off the persevering Gregory.
Taylor remained unbeaten at the close of a chastening session for the home side on 53. With two wickets in hand the deficit is just 11. Two days to go, two teams wanting to make it two wins from two. Enjoy the next two days.
