Yorkshire CCC hits back on truncated Saturday in the south-west

Yorkshire dug deep to dismiss their opponents for 274, taking the last seven wickets for 73 runs, then reaching 13-0 in their second innings before rain arrived at 2pm.

Play was eventually called off at 4.45pm with the deficit standing at 99, a figure considerably lower than had seemed likely when Somerset began the day with hopes of a lead in the region of 200.

Those aspirations were immediately jolted when they lost two wickets before adding to their overnight score.

Josh Thomas, the 21-year-old whose maiden first-class century had done so much to establish the hosts’ fine position, fell to the day’s fifth ball, caught behind off seamer Jack White.

Barely had the applause subsided for Thomas – who scored 136 from 155 balls with 18 fours and a six – than Thomas Rew perished for a second-ball duck on his Championship debut.

The 18-year-old, the younger brother of James, his Somerset team-mate, fell to the opening delivery of White’s next over, edging to Fin Bean at third slip.

White was very well supported by George Hill, who claimed the important wicket of Tom Abell with the assistance of a catch at first slip by Joe Root.

Abell scored 50 exactly from 147 balls with four fours and a six, his fourth-wicket partnership with Thomas worth 166.

Somerset slipped to 229-7 when Logan van Beek struck with his second ball of the morning, bowling Craig Overton for a single with a ball that shaped back.

Yorkshire were then frustrated by a partnership of 42 for the eighth wicket between Will Smeed and Lewis Gregory, which came to an end when Gregory rather lazily and unnecessarily launched the off-spinner Dom Bess out to long-on, where Root judged a good running catch.

It sparked a poor finish to the Somerset innings, which Yorkshire wrapped up on the stroke of lunch.

Root took another catch – this time back at first slip – when Migael Pretorius edged low to him off Matty Revis, who finished things off next ball when Alfie Ogborne clipped to Bess at mid-wicket.

Smeed was left stranded on 36 from 82 balls with seven fours, White the most successful bowler with 4-41 from 16 overs.

Trailing by 112, Yorkshire had no alarms at the start of their second innings, which was just 27 balls old when the weather set in.

There was time for Bean, who had top-scored in the first innings, to stroke a handsome cover-driven four off Gregory, but not much else before the teams left the field.

For Yorkshire, the 33.1 overs had gone just about as well as they could possibly have hoped, Bean ending on eight and Adam Lyth on two.