County Championship 2023. Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire. 10^th, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th July. Taunton.

Jack Leach, (back), Roelof van der Merwe (hand), Ned Leonard (concussion) and Sonny Baker (back) were all unavailable. A number of players were also rested ahead of Vitality Blast T20 Finals Day. Dom Bess was on a short-term loan from Yorkshire.

This round of matches was one of two played in the 2023 County Championship as an experiment with a Kookaburra rather than a Dukes ball.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, S.R. Dickson, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, A.R.I. Umeed, J.E.K. Rew (w), K.L. Aldridge, D.M. Bess, J.A. Brooks, A.R.J. Ogborne, S. Bashir.

Hampshire. J.J. Weatherley, F.S. Middleton, N.R.T. Gubbins, J.M. Vince (c), B.C. Brown (w), L.A. Dawson, J.K. Fuller, K.H.D. Barker, F.S. Organ, K.J. Abbott, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 500. Hampshire 58 for 2. Hampshire trail by 448 runs with eight first innings wickets standing.

Third day 12^th July – Somerset hold the advantage

This was a day designed to test Somerset’s denuded and largely inexperienced attack. It was a test they came through with considerable credit. It was not a perfect day, there were some similarities between the Hampshire innings and the Somerset one, with Hampshire recovering strongly from a poor start, but overall, Somerset’s attack achieved more than Hampshire’s highly rated attack had on the first day. It left Somerset, at the end of the third day, in a position from where victory was not an impossible dream. The sky was brighter than on the second day, but not bright enough to prevent the floodlights being called upon for most of a day which I watched in the company of two people with a long history of playing club cricket.

Alfie Ogborne, 19-years old and on debut, bowling left arm pace from over the wicket, attempted to angle the first ball of the day across the right-handed James Vince. He produced a wayward full toss which Vince neatly guided across the face of the slips to the Hildreth Stand for four. With his fifth ball, Ogborne produced the ball he was probably trying to achieve with his first. Vince repeated the stroke, but this time edged the ball wide of Tom Lammonby at third slip. Lammonby took off, arched his back as he went, and caught the ball as it flew past him. Vince immediately turned on his heels and strode towards the Pavilion. Ogborne had set the pattern for the first part of the morning.

At the other end of the age scale, 40-year-old Jack Brooks, right arm over, angled his first ball across the other overnight not out batter, the left-handed Nick Gubbins. Brooks found the edge of a defensive bat and the ball flew straight into Rew’s gloves. Hampshire 64 for 4. 436 behind. Vince 16. Gubbins 14. Somerset rampant. Within seven balls of the start, the crowd had emitted two huge roars and were smiling from one end of the ground to the other. Except that is, for the silent, closed blocks in most of the Somerset Stand, part of Somerset’s economy measures in an increasingly financially challenging domestic cricketing world. The closed blocks were made up for by the high-pitched chants of, “Somerset, Somerset, Somerset,” from the Priory Bridge Road Stand. There, a large phalanx of schoolchildren had been marched in for the third day in succession and those two wickets had them in full flow from the start.

Hampshire, backs now against the wall, dug in, initially against some bowling from Ogborne and Brooks as tight as the financial situation. They managed only a single boundary in the next ten overs, and the three overs following Gubbins’ departure were all maidens. Teamwork being central to Somerset’s philosophy, Brooks fielded at mid-on for Ogborne and frequently offered him advice as Somerset applied pressure. It was Shoaib Bashir though who benefited. He replaced Brooks at the River End, and Liam Dawson, so often a thorn in Somerset’s side with the bat, tried to break out with a slog sweep off Bashir’s second ball. The ball rose and fell in a long arc towards the Somerset Stand as Bashir, Dawson and the field stood watching it, transfixed as if auditioning for a tableau, until Ogborne caught the ball on the boundary. Instantly, as if they had all been released from a trance by a bolt of electricity, Bashir and the fielders sprinted to congratulate Ogborne, while Dawson turned and walked off. Hampshire 80 for 5. Dawson eight. Somerset lead 420.

“Somerset, Somerset, Somerset,” chimed the schoolchildren as they joined the celebration. Their chants were soon replaced by a cacophony of shrieking made up of an endlessly elongated single syllable accompanied by a forest of waving arms as one of the livestream cameras was pointed at one small group of them after another. The shrieking reached an even higher volume when their excited faces appeared on the big screen. “Somerset, Somerset, Somerset,” again four overs later when Bashir coaxed some turn out of the pitch for which James Fuller overcompensated. He played a defensive stroke inside the line and had his off stump knocked back. The Somerset team were as ecstatic as the schoolchildren, the rest of the crowd emitting a traditional cheer to add to the mix. Hampshire 88 for 6. Fuller seven. Bashir 3-1-3-2. Somerset lead 412.

And then, with Somerset joy at its height, slowly but inexorably, Ben Brown and Felix Organ began to shore up Hampshire’s position. As the overs ticked by, a voice cautioned, “Probably only four or five overs of life left in the Kookaburra.” There were occasional forays to the boundary off Brown’s bat. A paddle sweep to Gimblett’s Hill off Bashir brought the comment, “Nicely done,” from one of the two cricketers spending the day with me, and Kasey Aldridge conceded two fours in an over. For the most part though, Brown and Organ concentrated on defence, Organ having scored so few runs that at one point the other cricketer said, “Felix Organ doesn’t like scoring runs, does he?” Organ, with perfect unintended comedic timing, immediately slog swept Bashir to the Somerset Stand for six. Such is the fate of the commentator prepared to express an opinion.

When a back foot cover drive from Brown off Bashir was pulled back just short of the rope in front of the massed children it restricted Brown to three and ignited a colossal high-pitched cheer and another chorus of, “Somerset, Somerset, Somerset.” A pull for four to the far side of the ground from the somnolent Organ impressed the children less. But, for the most part, the ball was pushed back up the pitch or gently onto the square, the nine overs before lunch, taken slightly early because of a brief shower, bringing 14 runs. It had been a tough morning for Hampshire, but Brown and Organ had at least stabilised their innings. Hampshire 138 for 6. 362 behind.

Ogborne opened the afternoon for Somerset from the Trescothick Pavilion End to a buzz of expectation. His third ball was angled across Brown on a line which would have taken it just outside off stump. Brown had to play and chopped the ball onto his stumps. Hampshire 138 for 7. Brown 39. Lead 361. Somerset were on the cusp of a huge first innings lead. Off the final ball of Ogborne’s over, Keith Barker clipped the ball, without keeping it down, through midwicket. It was only inches off the ground when it reached the midwicket fielder, Dom Bess. It passed to his left, Bess dived, but the ball evaded his hands and went for four to a collective groan. It was impossible to tell from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion whether it had carried, but Bess’s reaction suggested it had, and that he thought he could have caught it. It seemed a crucial moment.

A lofted straight drive to the Lord Ian Botham Stand boundary off Bashir from Barker was so well struck it reinforced the impact of the ball that evaded Bess. Then, when Aldridge replaced Ogborne, a cheer of relief as Barker fenced at his first ball and was caught by Rew. Hampshire 152 for 8. Barker 12. Lead 348. “The seagulls have arrived,” someone observed. It was a statement loaded with meaning, for the seagulls at Taunton have an uncanny ability to arrive shortly before the end of play. Their arrival at this unusually early hour, and with the Hampshire innings on the point of disintegrating, had the smack of an omen. If so, it was not the sort of omen the speaker had in mind. Instead of presaging the imminent demise of the Hampshire innings, it proved to be the harbinger of a Hampshire revival which replicated, if not quite on the same scale, the revival of Somerset’s innings by aldridge and Rew.

The glue-like Organ was still at the wicket with 17 runs from 92 balls. He was joined by Kyle Abbott who has more than once been the scourge of Somerset with the bat as well as the ball. He began here with a straight drive for four off Aldridge. When Bashir beat both Organ and Rew with a ball which went for four byes, one of the cricketers said, “It might not be a bad thing if that one turned.” But, after that, only the occasional ball beat the bat and Organ and Abbott began to turn the tide. Aldridge was twice driven through the off side by Abbott for four and Bashir was pulled to the Somerset Stand for six with neither looking in much trouble. When Abbott drove Bashir for four twice in an over, once each side of the wicket, Hampshire passed 200, and the Somerset lead fell below 300.

Taking the last two wickets quickly would re-establish Somerset’s dominance, but Hampshire began to pressurise Bashir. Organ was becoming less glue-like, and slog swept him for six before he conceded 11 runs in an over, including a blistering square cut from Abbott. Abbott also found the boundary twice from Brooks’ first two balls, bowled with the new ball, to take Hampshire to 250 from where they reached tea on 258 for 8 with the Somerset lead reduced to 242. It was still a very substantial lead, but with only four sessions left in the match, and barely a ball now passing the bat, calculations were being made as to how long Somerset could afford for Organ and Abbott to continue if they were to have sufficient time, and runs on the board, to bowl Hampshire out a second time.

For the first time in the match, the sun was making a substantive appearance. It lit up the Quantocks whenever it appeared, the ageless view of them from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion was as glorious as ever. The bright yellow of the oilseed, radiant when the sun was out, was still in evidence, with the green of new-grown vegetation around it. There was a cold wind in the ground, especially when cloud covered the sun as it tended to do after tea. It was though a relaxed tea interval with Somerset in an impregnable position and still with prospects of defeating a Hampshire side which had held the upper hand against them more often than not in recent years. There was the usual partial exodus from the ground in the tea interval, old habits persisting, but I was firmly in my seat for the resumption.

There was some tension as Somerset pressed for the last two wickets with the lead continuing to diminish. With Brooks and Aldridge bowling, Abbott continued to attack, driving and cutting Aldridge for two more fours and then pulling him over straight midwicket to the Ondaatje Stand for six. “That’s a long boundary,” the comment. Then, Organ fully abandoned defence and the boundaries began to flow from both ends. Among them, Ogborne was driven through the on side to the covers store and steered past slip to the Hildreth Stand off successive balls. “It feels like we are a bowler short,” the next comment. Bess meanwhile had replaced Bashir at the River End and was promptly driven through the off side to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion by Abbott. “We now have two off spinners bowling from the same end,” the immediate comment, “If Leach had been playing, he would have bowled all those overs.”

By the time the lead had fallen to 182 the tension was palpable, for if Somerset lost the option of enforcing the follow-on their prospects of winning, with barely three and a half sessions remaining, would be severely curtailed. When Organ lifted Bess into the Somerset Stand near the Garner Gates eyes were again cast anxiously at the scoreboard. And then, with everyone wondering where the final two wickets would come from, Organ used his feet to play defensively to Bashir, now bowling from the Trescothick Pavilion End as Abell shuffled his stretched bowling resources, and was stumped. The cheer was of relief. It reflected how important that wicket was to Somerset. Organ’s long, slow, reluctant walk to the Caddick Pavilion, with head permanently and exaggeratedly bowed, and bat occasionally banging his helmet, showed how important the wicket was to Hampshire. As he dragged himself across the outfield, one of the cricketers captured Organ’s look perfectly, “He looks like a defeated cartoon character trudging off the screen.”

Three overs later the cheer was triumphant as Mohammad Abbas was leg before wicket to Bess and Hampshire were all out for 330, just 21 runs short of saving the follow-on. And the cheer was greater still when it was announced that Somerset had enforced the follow-on, perhaps reflecting anxiety that captains’ usual reluctance to make sides follow on might have been applied here. The Organ/Abbott partnership of 177 in 42 overs had been exceptional for the ninth wicket, even on a now clearly flat pitch. Abbott ended on 88 not out in just under three hours while Organ was finally defeated just three runs short of a century having batted for nearly four and a half. For Somerset, it had been an excellent day for Bashir with three wickets for 88 runs at less than three an over, a good one for Ogborne, and Bess, overall, had bowled economically on his return.

In Hampshire’s second innings, Bashir was bowling by the seventh over and Bess by the tenth. For Hampshire, Abbott opened with Fletcha Middleton, the hope perhaps being that he could carry the momentum from his first innings straight into the second while effectively also acting as a nightwatch. He was out in Bashir’s second over, caught and bowled by a calmly taken return catch with Bashir falling to his left. Joe Weatherley, who replaced Abbott, came forward in defence to Bess and was caught behind. Before the close, Bashir had Organ under pressure, beating him three times in three balls, despite the freedom with which he had played Bashir towards the end of Hampshire’s first innings. Hampshire closed on 34 for 2, still 136 behind. Somerset had regained the momentum, and still held the advantage, but an awful lot of work remained to be done on the final day.

Close. Somerset 500. Hampshire 330 (F.S. Organ 97, K.J. Abbott 89*, S. Bashir 3-88) and 34 for 2. Hampshire trail by 136 runs with eight second innings wickets standing.