Somerset v Hampshire, County Championship Group 2, The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, June 3rd to 6th 2021, Day One, Somerset 360 (Gregory 107, van der Merwe 88, Barker 6-72 )
Lewis Gregory strikes me as one of the quietest, most unassuming members of the Somerset team. Someone who prefers to let his cricket do the talking, going about his business in a professional understated way. But he chose the most auspicious of days to play one of his finest innings for the county and one which will linger long in the memory of those lucky enough to be at the Cooper Associates County Ground today. The first session however did not go the way the returning crowd would have hoped.
You couldn’t help but let your mind wander from Taunton to St John’s Wood for the first couple of hours of today’s play. Not only were Craig Overton and Jack Leach stranded in the capital in non-playing roles but the soon-to-arrive opener that all Somerset supporters have been longing for was making his way to a hugely accomplished, last man out, debut test double hundred. Each wicket that fell at the Cooper Associates County Ground in that first session made both the longing for and the gap between that much more painful.
When James Vince won the toss his surprise at the greenness of the surface presented to him would have turned to anticipation as to what his bowlers could do to Somerset’s fragile top order. Without Mohammad Abbas to lead the attack, Keith Barker, who had almost taken his side to a draw at the start of last month with his obdurate batting, was superb with the ball. At one point he had the stunning figures of 4-4 as Somerset declined to 26-4 in the thirteenth over.
Tom Abell was at the crease after 2.2 overs – Eddie Byrom the left-handed opener departing for a duck this time. But, the skipper couldn’t bale his side out on this occasion. The aggregate between the captain, Byrom, Hildreth and Bartlett, Barker’s first four victims, was a princely 9 runs of which the captain accounted for 8. Even allowing for Barker’s superb bowling and the less than easy batting conditions that is just not good enough.
The only consolation in that morning session was that Kyle Abbott was mysteriously below par. The man who has in recent years heaped misery on Somerset cricket on far too many occasions was wicketless in the first two sessions. I dread to think what carnage (if 26-4 isn’t bad enough for you) the first innings innings would have been if Hampshire’s prolific South African seamer had been anywhere near his best.
Abbot was not alone as an under-performing Hampshire seamer. Abbott, Wheal and Holland were a combined 54.2-4-256-3 and two of those wickets were the last to fall in the Somerset innings.
Steve Davies was, through all this standing at the other end of the metaphorical burning deck. Fully vindicating the coaches decision in this innings to ask him to open. A decision that was further enhanced when Tom Banton batting at 7 joined Davies 7 overs before lunch and as is his wont changed the tempo immediately. 43-5 became 79-5 at lunch with Banton on 26 off 29 balls which included a six. Davies lunched on 36 off 75 balls.
You sensed then that lunch had come at the wrong time for Somerset as the sixth wicket pair were beginning to flow. At the same time you hoped that an hour of Banton after lunch could still haul Somerset back into the game.
Predictably it was not to be. Despite Davies surviving a chance to Vince at first slip with the score on 83-5 the pair had both departed with 113 on the board. Davies, the seventh wicket to fall, deserved a fifty for his guts and technique in a recently unfamiliar role.
Enter Roelof. When he walked to the wicket my thought was that a reprise of his innings against Surrey in the RLODC on the same ground was needed very badly to give Somerset a position in this game they needed. That was probably a little overstating it, born as much out of the frustration of the Somerset demise, but what can’t be argued was that the home side’s position in the game and the group was pretty parlous.
Lewis Gregory who had supported van der Merwe so well in that fifty over win, was a reassuring presence at the other end, a man Hampshire would have wanted to remove sooner rather than later. Three dropped catches all benefitting the Plymouth born all-rounder when his score was on 32, 39 and 50 were not ideal given the, Barker excepted, travails of the visiting bowlers. Liam Dawson, who had made a pair at Southampton last month in the reverse fixture, was the unfortunate man again on two of those occasions.
Van der Merwe’s batting is not always a thing of aesthetic beauty. Nevermore so than when he is beaten outside off stump. He also has a propensity to get himself into the most improbable positions ever seen by a first-class batsman. But the fact is that Roelof is the archetypal Somerset cricketer, full of character, combative, swashbuckling and a bag of energy. And hugely beloved of his team’s fans.
The change in the dynamic of the game was remarkable as the pair added 100 in under 18 overs, almost matching each other run for run and continued on through 150 (31 overs). I’m pretty certain the neutral would have enjoyed every minute of it and most Hampshire fans appreciated the pair’s efforts, for those fortunate enough to be in the County Ground the enjoyment was off the charts.
The disappointment was therefore palpable when van der Merwe, who had moved ahead of Gregory on the scoreboard was run out by a direct hit from Brad Wheal. Whether it was a case of the looming century slightly clouding his judgement we won’t know but it was clearly a poor piece of running. The pair had added 171 in 37 overs, when you consider they came together on 113-7 in the 39th over you get some idea of the scale of their achievement.
With the light having forced a 25-minute delay immediately after tea little improved and twelve overs to go until the new ball Gregory seemed to decide that upping the aggression was the best tactic. He moved into the 90s with a glorious straight six into the “Tres” bringing up the 300 at the same time. There were no “nervous nineties” for Lewis as he reached his century off 135 balls (13 fours and 2 sixes) in the last over with the old ball.
This was an innings of the highest class. Yes there were risks that might worry the purists and he had those three lives but that should not detract from the accomplishment of taking Somerset from 108-6 to 338-9. There was beauty and brutality in his shot making, enterprise and endeavour in his intent from the outset all this combined with a maturity and awareness of the context and importance of his role.
When he eventually departed to a hugely deserved standing ovation he has added 54 with Josh Davey in under 8 overs. Davey played with a lovely freedom from the outset three glorious boundaries were especially impressive, shots that Sir Viv would have been proud of.
With 12 runs needed for what had seemed like an impossible fourth batting point around noon, Marchant de Lange completed the task with ease and elan. Two enormous sixes and a four in an eight ball 17 saw Somerset to 360. A total in itself which puts Hampshire under pressure but given the circumstances it was compiled in you have to question the visitor’s mindset when they bat tomorrow.
They at least had a reprieve from further punishment this evening when the light deteriorated depriving Somerset’s bowlers of a possible 10 overs at the Hampshire top order.
Those longing thoughts of Lords seemed a far distant memory by the close of play. New Zealand, thanks to Conway had at one point been 292-4. At around the same time Somerset were 43-5. The Kiwi’s innings ended with Conway’s run out for 200 on 378 only 18 more that Somerset. It really is a funny old game.
I am, on a day that was special to all Somerset supporters, going to leave the final word to Mike Unwin, one of those lucky enough to witness this thrilling day first-hand. Mike, who has been temporarily released from his SecondsWatch duties, has written a moving account of how today felt for him. I’m going to publish that tomorrow morning but in the meantime Mike, you have the final word today.
“What a privilege to be there on the first day back after 615 days – a day that showed the fighting spirit of the Somerset team – one that the 2,000-odd members present will remember for a long, long time.
