Nottinghamshire start well in the race for the County Championship

SAM DALLING AT TAUNTON: It will be difficult for Somerset to claim victory from here. Good news for those of a Nottinghamshire persuasion given they started today already trailing Warwickshire by 16 points. They need to win

Taunton (day one of four): Nottinghamshire 282-6

Scorecard

This is going to be a fascinating month. This is going to be a fascinating match. If you want instant gratification, you’re in the wrong spot. For all roads point to a Thursday settling of affairs.

It was a day on which the pendulum swung. By close it probably just about worked its way into Nottinghamshire’s corner. For that they owe much to a late flourish from Tom Moores and Liam Patterson-White, the duo adding an unbeaten 74 in just 80 balls before the gloom intervened.

Patterson-White was the aggressor, finishing with 46, driving and pulling merrily. It might have taken just 38 balls, but much of his work was more Beethoven than Jax Jones. Rarely was a risk taken.

Two years back Patterson-White – a rare Academy graduate in a side of imported talent - made his first-class bow on this ground as a 20-year-old. To say it was a mixed debut puts it mildly. Too ill to bowl on day one; dismissed for a duck on day two; five-fer on day three, with none other than Ravichandran Ashwin doing likewise at the other end. His side lost the game still; of course they did, this was Notts of 2019 vintage. They rate him at Trent Bridge and it is easy to see why.

Prior to his intervention, it had been a day of cat and mouse. It went something like this; the visitors would put together a partnership; only for the hosts to strike. Batters got in; batters got out. Neither side wanted to take hold. Wickets two to five saw between 37 and 54 runs added.

Ben Duckett made 24, Lyndon James 30, Steven Mullaney 42. All looked well set, Duckett in particular before mistiming a pull that went up and up. It was a shot that didn’t need playing. He began walking off without hesitation, Roelof van der Merwe steading himself to take the grab.

^{Jack Leach was in action for Somerset}

Joe Clarke is more than worthy of a mention. He looked a cut above en-route to 59. For all the talk (screams) that he should be given white-ball honours, he looks more than adept at the game’s longer format. Using his feet well to negate any sign of swing, the surprise was that he fell without making more. Did Peter Trego on commentary curse him by daring to drop the phrase ‘Daddy hundred’? Probably not.

He got unlucky, early through a pull shot off Tom Abell’s lively medium fast, the ball taking the back of the bat and Steve Davies tumbling in front of slip.  It was the first delivery of Abell’s spell, Clarke early through the shot perhaps playing for the pace of Marchant de Lange who was no longer operating.

Then there was Sam Northeast. How many cricketers have turned out for three first-class counties in one season? Someone else will have to answer that, but on his second debut of the summer he looked classy only to be pinned LBW by Josh Davey for 34. It was a richly deserved wicket for Davey who, having started the day operating at the River End, bowled beautifully once switched to the end named after England’s current batting consultant.

Davey was the pick of a depleted Somerset attack. How they missed the services of the talismanic Craig Overton, who lifts them so. No one in these parts needs telling just how good Overton is; no surprise really that the two standout bowlers in the domestic game happen to be half-decent international cricketers.

They were also deprived of Lewis Gregory, who will not, according to head coach Jason Kerr, bowl again for a while: “The severity of his injury is that he will not bowl again this summer,” he said afterwards.  An appearance as a batter at Blast Finals Day is the best he can hope for.

^{Liam Patterson-White counterattacked for Nottinghamshire}

The lack of match practice told, with Somerset’s quicks decent in spells but failing to hit their usual consistent standards. Anyone who argues the scheduling is irrelevant, and that cricket is cricket needs to think again: “It was a reflection of where we are,” Kerr explained at close. “We’ve played a lot of white-ball cricket recently and looked a little bit rusty compared to the standards we’ve had for the rest of the year. There was an element of fatigue, there was an element of we haven’t played much red-ball cricket recently and that showed.”

Somerset would have been happier had they removed Moores, but he was shelled on five by the usually bet-your-house-on hands of Abell at second slip from de Lange. Cricket being cricket, the next ball flew agonizingly wide of the same man and to the boundary.

Nottinghamshire will be frustrated at their failure to kick on but set themselves up nicely. Having been inserted, they can be content and will look to add another hundred or so runs in the morning before unleashing the tournament’s leading wicket-taker in Luke Fletcher.

It will be difficult for Somerset to claim victory from here. Good news for those of a Nottinghamshire persuasion given they started today already trailing Warwickshire by 16 points. They need to win. And what a story it could set up; by rights they should be in Division Two. They may well be again as county champions.

It is good to be back. After an interlude, four-day cricket has returned. They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone: not true. They knew what they had. It was just taken away. Now all they desire is to be a Lord’s come October.