Yorkshire CCC upsets the odds to pull off comeback win in Somerset
BOOKMAKERS would have rubbed their hands together had anyone gone to them after the first day’s play and said: “I’d like to put some money on a Yorkshire win, please.”
Somerset were 201-3 after bowling out Yorkshire for 162 and the smart brass was on an easy triumph for the hosts.
Whether there was a touch of complacency on Somerset’s part, or whether it was just down to Yorkshire’s response, will never be known.
But Yorkshire hit back brilliantly from that point, dismissing Somerset for 184 in pursuit of 260 to claim their first County Championship triumph of the season at the fourth attempt.
From the moment that they took two wickets before Somerset had added to their tally on the second day, the home team slipping to 201-5 before reaching 274 to gain a first innings lead of 112, Yorkshire were comfortably the better side.
Half-centuries from James Wharton, Joe Root and Jhye Richardson helped them fashion a second innings total of 371, leaving Somerset to make considerably more than should have been the case.
Amid talk of Somerset being the slight favourites to get over the line on a placid surface, albeit one that took increasing spin on the final day as Root and Dom Bess both claimed four wickets, it always felt like a 50-50 situation and too close to call.
In the end, Yorkshire proved too strong for a callow Somerset batting line-up - three of their top-seven had just eight first-class appearances between them going into the contest - with only first innings centurion Josh Thomas, who followed up with 57, and captain Tom Abell (41) delaying the visitors for long.
On a day that was sunny for long spells before it clouded over, Yorkshire’s score stood at 365-9 at the start of proceedings, the lead 253.
Another six runs had been added when Richardson fell to the 13th ball of the morning, caught behind flicking at a delivery from Craig Overton.
That was time enough for the Australian - 48 overnight - to reach his fifth first-class fifty from 122 balls with seven boundaries, a gutsy display. Richardson helped add 85 runs for the last two wickets in fact – 10 runs more than the margin of victory.
Somerset had chased 287 to win their previous game at Hampshire but they did not have George Hill to contend with on that occasion.
Hill set the tone with a magnificent opening spell that was well backed up by Jack White, Yorkshire “bowling dry” and frustrating the home team.
Hill attacked the stumps and the outside edge and took two wickets in his first spell: Archie Vaughan seemingly late on the ball that bowled him and Tom Lammonby fatally shouldering arms to a delivery that clipped off stump.
When Bess followed up by having James Rew caught behind, Somerset were 21-3 and struggling for any sort of foothold.
Much for them depended on Tom Abell, who cover-drove Bess to the boundary and followed up with a brace of leg-side fours off Hill, which slightly spoiled his figures.
At lunch, the total had climbed to 57-3, with Abell and Thomas now set. Hill looked to have Abell stone-dead lbw just after lunch but umpire Mike Burns turned down the appeal.
Abell looked in the mood to capitalise, straight-driving White to the boundary and then off-driving Logan van Beek for another, the Dutch international unable to be risked for more than four overs that went for 22 runs. Bess got the key breakthrough when Abell edged to Hill at slip - one of three smart catches that he held in that position.
Thomas Rew, the 18-year-old on Championship debut, had perished for a second-ball duck in the first innings but this time showed his obvious potential.
He drove his second delivery from Bess to the cover boundary, cut van Beek for four and then reverse-swept Root to the rope in a fine little innings, cut short in its prime when he then tried to cut Root and was caught behind.
Moments earlier, Bess removed the dangerous Thomas, who edged to Hill at slip, as Somerset lost three key wickets in the lead-up to tea, Overton the last of them when he flicked Root firmly to short-leg, where the ball somehow stuck about Adam Lyth’s person.
Needing 93 from a minimum of 29 overs with three wickets left, Somerset returned after tea with plenty to do.
Their task was insurmountable when, in the second over after the break, Root removed Will Smeed and Migael Pretorius with successive balls - Smeed also edging to slip and Pretorius driving back to the bowler, a dire dismissal from a Somerset perspective.
The only question now was who would take the last wicket? The answer was Bess, who finished things off against his former county by bowling last man Alfie Ogborne, leaving Lewis Gregory stranded on 22 and Somerset to ponder how - given their position at the end of day one - they had lost the game.