Frustration for Yorkshire having been in firm control at Taunton

In 2009, Yorkshire gained a first innings lead of 112, set Somerset 476 to win and lost by four wickets.

Peter Trego scored 103 not out from 54 balls with nine sixes and six fours as Somerset achieved the second-highest chase in Championship history.

Only Middlesex, who made 502-6 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1925, have reached a higher target, and that on the back of a double hundred by the legendary Patsy Hendren.

In 2010, it was history repeating.

First, Yorkshire gained a first innings lead of 28 on the back of a superb 142 by Adam Lyth.

The left-hander followed up with 93 in the second innings as Yorkshire set Somerset another seemingly notional target of 362.

This time, it was James Hildreth who led them home with an unbeaten 102 from 70 balls and Trego the terrible was not even needed; it was one of only two defeats suffered by Yorkshire in a season in which they finished third in the table and almost won the title.

There was to be no remarkable finish at Taunton yesterday, but it was not for want of trying by 
Andrew Gale’s Yorkshire.

They drove a game in which the opening day was lost to the weather but were frustrated by stubborn resistance and a featherbed pitch.

The likelihood of something extraordinary happening was effectively ended when Yorkshire failed to take the wickets they required to enforce the follow-on.

Somerset began the final day on 232-6 needing to reach 301 to avoid that prospect and they got there 10 minutes before the scheduled lunch interval with two wickets to spare.

Once again, Hildreth was to the fore, lifting his overnight 76 to 115.

But Hildreth being Hildreth, and Yorkshire being Yorkshire at Taunton, there was a late twist when Hildreth fell three runs short of the follow-on mark.

The right-hander had his middle stump knocked out by a splendid yorker from Moin Ashraf before George Dockrell spared Somerset’s blushes by pulling Rashid to the backward square boundary to the right of the pavilion.

After dismissing the home side for 310, Yorkshire reached 104-4 before the sides shook hands at 4.50pm, Lyth following another first innings century with an unbeaten 57, made from 134 balls with six fours.

On a day blessed with glorious sunshine and gentle winds, with the distant Quantocks a gleaming patchwork of greens and browns, Somerset made a positive start.

Hildreth stroked two boundaries in the second over, bowled by Rich Pyrah, the first a delightful clip through mid-wicket, the second a sumptuous cut backward of point.

Craig Meschede drove an uppish straight boundary off Pyrah too, as Gale began with the all-rounder from the Old Pavilion End and leg-spinner Adil Rashid from the River End.

It was the hors d’oeuvre before the second new ball, which Yorkshire took as soon as it became available eight overs in, by which time the score had climbed to 258-6.

Hildreth went to his century from 150 balls with 12 fours when he squirted a ball from Steve Patterson into the leg-side for a single.

Two balls later, Meschede fell tamely, driving straight to Pyrah, one of two short covers.

It ended a stand of 100 in 32 overs and left Somerset 29 shy of avoiding the follow-on with three wickets left.

There was tension in the air as they inched to their target, forgoing their free-flowing start to the day and adopting the virtues of dogged defence.

Ryan Sidebottom several times went past the outside edge after he replaced Rashid at the River End, occasions which produced familiar expressions of anguish from the former England pace bowler.

Patterson was always probing but, as well as Yorkshire huffed and puffed, they could not quite blow the lower order down quickly enough.

Moments after saving the follow-on, Dockrell played on to Ashraf, who then had former Yorkshire pace bowler Steve Kirby caught in the slips after lunch had been delayed by 15 minutes with nine wickets down. Ashraf finished with 3-60 from 15.3 overs and Patterson 3-65 from 24.

Leading by 140, Yorkshire’s second innings began poorly when they slipped to 21-3 inside 11 overs.

For the second time in the match, Joe Sayers was caught at second slip by Marcus Trescothick off Kirby for a single, Phil Jaques following for a duck two balls later when he shouldered arms to Kirby and was lbw.

When Gale fell lbw to Trego for four, there was optimistic talk among the locals of Somerset possibly dismissing Yorkshire cheaply and chasing a target.

That would have been carrying the unexpected nature of Somerset-Yorkshire games at Taunton to new extremes, and it was a possibility that was soon emphatically extinguished by Lyth and Gary Ballance.

Lyth, who scored 105 in the first innings, was once again in outstanding form, showing off the trademark cover drives that are one of the finest sights on the county circuit.

Ballance, too, was pleasing on the eye, cover-driving the left-arm spinner George Dockrell into the advertising hoardings in front of the Somerset Stand over which are built three tiers of flats.

Lyth went to his half-century from 106 balls with six fours but Ballance went for 31 in the dying stages.

The left-hander skied Dockrell to deep mid-on, where Kirby judged a steepling catch.

There was time for Rashid to add to his collection of not outs, currently standing at five in seven Championship innings.

Rashid’s score of five took his tally to 509 runs at 254.50 – an average that would have made the great Don Bradman green with envy.

Both sides could claim a good day’s cricket, which is not something Somerset have been able to say too often in what has so far been a poor season.

Whereas they are struggling and still seeking their first victory in the tournament, Yorkshire are flying, playing consistently well and well-placed to soar higher still before summer is out.

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