Somerset CCC v Yorkshire CCC: Visitors collapse with the bat on difficult first day

In reply, Somerset reached 201-3, Josh Thomas, the 21-year-old left-handed opener, scoring 136 and sharing with Tom Abell an unbroken stand of 166.

Yorkshire are not so much chasing glory at the moment as chasing their tails.

How different the picture had looked for them just after lunch when two of their finest batsmen were together at the crease.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had joined forces about half-an-hour before the break with Yorkshire wobbling on 64-3 and with Bean the latest to return to the pavilion, caught behind defending a delivery from Migael Pretorius.

Adam Lyth had gone lbw in the fourth over to Alfie Ogborne, the 22-year-old left-arm seamer, and James Wharton (who replaced Sam Whiteman, who was struck in the groin in the previous game) with the total on 48 to a brilliant diving catch by wicketkeeper James Rew, one-handed to his right, off Gregory for a 20-ball duck.

Having lost the toss in challenging conditions - gloomy enough for the floodlights to be on from the fifth over - Yorkshire needed Root and Bairstow to step up.

In that half-an-hour before lunch they did not disappoint, making batting look comfortable as they added 51 in just 49 balls, lifting Yorkshire to 115-3 at the interval.

Bairstow, in particular, upped the ante, flaying Ogborne to the cover boundary to get off the mark and then dispatching Pretorius for a quartet of fours.

At the other end, Root used all his experience to soak up the pressure on a green-looking pitch, breaking out only when well-set with three offside fours in five balls off Ogborne, luminous shots at variance with the skies.

Growing home frustrations were compounded in the last over before lunch when Bairstow was badly dropped on 22 by Craig Overton at second slip off Pretorius - Overton’s second spill of the morning having grassed Wharton in the same position off Gregory the ball before Wharton was dismissed.

Throw in Gregory bowling Bean with a no-ball when he had 21 to his name, and there was just a hint of sloppiness about Somerset’s play, a feeling that they had let Yorkshire off the hook in that morning session.

After lunch, it was a different story. Yorkshire added nine to reach 124-3 and then came a disastrous collapse which saw them lose their last seven wickets for 38 runs - initially a burst of 6-22 triggered by Root’s dismissal, playing on to Gregory, before a last wicket stand of 16 between George Hill and Jack White.

Gregory bowled well, the pitch appearing to help him more than it had before lunch. The movement was by no means lavish, though, not to the extent that it explained Yorkshire’s decline.

After Root’s departure for 33 from 57 balls with six fours, Yorkshire lost three wickets with the score on 140.

Bairstow was caught behind off an inside edge off Overton for 34, made from 40 balls with six fours, then Matty Revis offered no shot to Gregory and had his off stump disturbed before Dom Bess was lbw to the same man, playing to leg.

When Gregory had Logan van Beek caught at third slip for a duck by a juggling Archie Vaughan, he had struck with the first, fourth and sixth balls of his 13th over to claim a five-wicket haul and Yorkshire, in an eye-blink, were 142-8.

It would have been 143-9 - and Gregory would have had four wickets in seven balls - but Hill was badly dropped on one by Abell at first slip.

Gregory soon had his sixth wicket, though, bowling a driving Jhye Richardson - and after Hill had ramped Overton for six in an effort to eke out what runs he could with just last man White for company, Overton finished things off when Hill top-edged a hook to deep backward-square.

Wickets continued to fall when Somerset replied - the skies much brighter, the sun peeking through. White had Vaughan caught behind; then a flat-footed Tom Lammonby played around a delivery from Richardson and was lbw.

White had James Rew edging to Bean at third slip as the hosts fell to 35-3 but Thomas and Abell stopped the mini-rot, lifting the score to 63-3 at tea.

Thomas, playing just his sixth first-class game, went to fifty from 54 balls with nine boundaries, the young man quick to punish anything short and slightly off line.

Thomas showed few nerves as his hundred approached, pulling Revis for six – a stroke that also brought up the century stand with Abell from 149 balls, Thomas contributing 74 of those runs. Another pull off Revis then took Thomas through to his hundred from 109 balls with his 14th four, a milestone warmly greeted by the Taunton faithful.