County Championship 2024. Division 1. Somerset v Kent v 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th May. Taunton.

Tom Abell (hamstring) was unavailable.

Somerset. M.T. Renshaw, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, A.R.I. Umeed, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), C. Overton, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Kent. B.G. Compton, Z. Crawley, D.J. Bell-Drummond (c), M.K. O’Riordan, J.L. Denly, H.Z. Finch (w), J.D.M. Evison, B. Swanepoel, G. Stewart, N.N. Gilchrist, G.A. Garrett.

Overnight. Somerset 554. Kent 108 for 5. Kent trail by 446 runs with five first innings wickets standing.

Third day 19th May – Crawley rampant

On the third afternoon of this match, Taunton matches of a decade and a half previously were evoked. Matches when the pitch would lose all semblance of life on the third day and dominant first innings positions would melt away in the face of second innings batters dispatching a ball devoid of all threat. On this day, a long afternoon of Kent batting mayhem brought unrelenting toil for the Somerset bowlers, and fielders found themselves chasing the ball to all parts of the Cooper Associates County Ground. As the Kent batters raised the ghosts of those earlier times, they punished the ball so unmercifully that it had to be replaced four times before its 80 overs were out.

But before the mayhem of the afternoon came the mayhem of the morning. Mayhem of a different kind. On a pitch on which Somerset had made 554, they completed the first innings rout of Kent, begun on the second afternoon. Kent were dismissed for 178 with a disciplined and hostile display of pressure bowling which allowed Kent no escape. Kent began well enough with Joe Denly and Joey Evison scoring freely off Craig Overton, and especially off Migael Pretorius. Thirty-six runs came in the first seven overs with two boundaries to each batter, a drive through extra cover from Denly perfectly placed and racing to the boundary in front of Gimblett’s Hill particularly caught the attention. The fifty partnership was reached at 144 for 5 with a single from a Denly edge which bounced short of third slip. The edge though seemed an aberration, for Kent’s morning had thus far been otherwise untroubled. Someone even commented, “Batting looks worryingly simple this morning.”

With each passing match since his arrival in Taunton though, Pretorius had improved. “He has bowled some good ones,” the comment when he finally beat Denly, and now he changed the mood. Evison tried to turn him to leg, the ball passed inside the bat and struck the stumps. Kent 145 for 6. Evison 11. Deficit 409. “You can’t feel good, six down and 400 behind,” someone said as Beyers Swanepoel walked out to bat, Evison’s wicket putting Kent’s innings firmly into perspective. The cover and square drives to the boundary from Denly off Gregory which followed barely made an impact on Somerset optimism, nor did two successive no balls from Gregory. A four, driven high over mid-on by the left-handed Swanepoel to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion, seemed no more than an act of futile defiance. Then, when Swanepoel tried to late cut Gregory he edged the ball straight into the hands of Andy Umeed at first slip. Kent 166 for 7. Swanepoel 6. Deficit 388.

From there the end came quickly. Grant Stewart was late coming down on a ball from Pretorius which cut in a shade and struck him on the pad. Kent 173 for 8. Stewart 1. Deficit 381. Denly, driving, was brilliantly caught off the inside edge by Rew diving low to leg. Kent 174 for 9. Denly 61. Deficit 380. Finally, Nathan Gilchrist, attempting to defend, was bowled by Gregory, the ball clipping the off stump before being caught at second slip by Overton. Kent 178 all out. Gilchrist 0. George Garrett 4 not out. Deficit 376.

Within seconds came the announcement, “Somerset have enforced the follow-on.” It was met by cheers, reflecting the view of many Championship followers that captains are too reluctant to make sides follow on. There was a tense fifty minutes or so to lunch as Overton and Gregory beat the bat with some frequency but without success. In Overton’s first over, from the Trescothick Pavilion End, Ben Compton survived two close calls. One, after he had left a ball which passed the proverbial hairsbreadth from the stumps, the second, a ball later, when he was badly beaten to gasps from around the ground. When Zak Crawley took two boundaries off Gregory he had been beaten at the start of the over. Heads were flung back too as the first boundary was edged just wide of fourth slip to the Ondaatje Stand and the second, a ball later, was cut over the same fielder. Compton though, soon settled with cover and square drives, both for four, one off each bowler. He followed that with a well-struck pull for four off Overton to the Somerset Stand and, as lunch approached, the batters looked increasingly settled. As if to emphasise the point, Compton pulled the penultimate ball of the session, from Pretorius, to the Somerset Stand. Kent went to lunch on 47 for 0, the evenness of the opening partnership evident from the fact that Compton had scored 22 from 39 balls and Crawley 23 from 40.

My lunchtime circumnavigation revealed anxiety among Somerset supporters about the apparently flattening pitch. It was summed up in one brief conversation: “Need three by tea.” “Needed one by lunch.” “It’s gone flat.” That the afternoon would turn out to be quite as difficult for Somerset as it did though, I doubt occurred to anyone. After all, the remaining Kent deficit of 329 would be, to say the least, daunting in any situation.

When, after ten overs of the afternoon session Kent had added a further 62 runs without losing a wicket, people were beginning to cast anxious glances at one another. Particularly worrying to Somerset supporters was the virtual absence of balls passing the bat while ten had flown to the boundary, all off the middle of the bat, mainly Crawley’s. Three times in an over he struck Somerset’s talisman bowler, Overton, to the boundary. Two of those strokes were sharply driven, one through the covers and one straight to the Trescothick Pavilion to as emphatic a shout of, “Shot!” as you will hear, followed by a generous round of applause. Perhaps indicative of the punishment the ball had received, as well as reminding of the issues that had arisen with balls in recent times, at the end of those ten overs the ball refused to go through the umpire’s gauge and was changed.

Despite the ball change and a shout of, “Come on Lou,” Kent added another 48 runs in the next ten overs with barely a care. Crawley was playing with apparent impunity. Leach had been brought into the attack before lunch and had continued after. He made little impact, the pitch apparently of no more assistance to him than to the pace bowlers. Crawley did miss a sweep but a loud leg before wicket appeal was unsuccessful. Compton left one ball which almost shaved the off stump, but otherwise, Kent were cruising.

Compton was more restrained than Crawley, but passed fifty with successive fours off Gregory, both pulled. “Mustn’t bowl there,” the comment as the first came from a leg stump long hop. The second was from a shorter ball, better directed, but Compton guided it safely enough past Rew to fine leg. When the score reached 157 for 0, someone said, “We’ve been here before with the pitch flattening on the third day.” “If we can’t win from a position like this because of the pitch then we have a problem,” the reply.

The scoring did ease slightly in the ten overs to tea, but still Kent added 40 more runs and still Somerset did not take a wicket. With four fielders on the leg side boundary and Pretorius bowling short, the comment was, “Trying to buy a wicket.” Kent did not take the bait, two singles coming from the over. Gregory tried every option. Tom Lammonby bowled five overs from the Trescothick Pavilion End, bowled four no balls, but conceded only ten runs off the bat, in part because the inner ring was set close and pulled off some sharp stops. There was no let-up in Somerset’s effort, but still, there was no sign of a wicket and the score was approaching 200.

Then Matt Renshaw was given the almost statutory spinners’ over before tea. In fact, he was given two. With the fourth ball of his second over, he defeated Compton’s defensive push and struck him on the pad. Kent 194 for 1. Compton 65 in eight minutes under three hours. Deficit 182. Rew jumped a little jig and, as the crowd erupted, the Somerset team engulfed Renshaw. It looked more than a celebration of a wicket. It was as if it was a celebration expecting more, a team feeling like they were finally on their way. Tea was reached three runs later after a speculative, but unsuccessful, pre-interval over from Andy Umeed’s leg breaks. There was though an altogether different feel about proceedings as the players went off than there would have been had they gone off two overs earlier.

When the players returned, the lift in spirits from the dismissal of Compton and the memories of Rew’s jig soon melted away as Crawley, aided by some solidity from Daniel Bell-Drummond, played an innings of total dominance. It was not pretty or classical, sometimes his strokes might even have been described as ugly, but it was mightily effective, the fielders often being reduced to ball-fetchers. There were only seven boundaries in the first 20 overs after tea, but 72 runs were scored without the loss of a wicket. According to my notes for those 20 overs, success for the bowlers was limited to one leg before wicket appeal and two beaten bats. Otherwise, it was an hour and a quarter of uninterrupted Kent progress. As Bell-Drummond quietly clipped Pretorius square for a single to take Kent to 246 for 1, reducing Somerset’s lead to 130, someone said, “Surrey are on the point of beating Worcestershire.” With Surrey favourites to retain the Championship, and Somerset keeping in touch, it was an indication that Somerset minds are never far away from that elusive first Championship.

With the cricket flowing remorselessly one way, I sought a change of scene. I decided on a mid-session circumnavigation. “You can walk a wicket,” someone had said at Kidderminster when Somerset were about to bat. I have not found it to work so well when the opposition are batting. Or perhaps the memory only stores the loss of your own side’s walked wickets. Whatever the statistics, my circumnavigation had no effect on Kent. As I walked around the ground, I was subjected to 12 overs of Crawley at his destructive best. In those 12 overs, Kent added 102 runs, 56 of them coming in boundaries alone from Crawley. It mattered not who bowled, the result was the same. It mattered not where I was on my walk, or from which vantage point I watched, the ball sped uninterrupted off Crawley’s bat to or over the boundary and to all parts of the field.

In one over, Gregory was driven through the covers to the Somerset Stand and pulled fine to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. An extra cover drive off Gregory’s next over and a sweep through midwicket off Leach had no finesse about them but eight runs came and Kent were past 300 still one down. Renshaw was tried in place of Gregory. A slog sweep crossed the Priory Bridge Road boundary, and an orthodox but dismissive sweep reached the boundary in front of the dug outs. Leach was clubbed over mid-off, the ball clearing the boundary fielder and landing just beyond the Colin Atkinson Pavilion rope. Umeed’s leg breaks replaced Renshaw’s leg breaks and the ball was flipped nonchalantly over long on and into the covers store as if it were a passing fly, bringing up Crawley’s double century as it went. In Umeed’s next over, there were successive slog sweeps for six over the Ondaatje boundary and a reverse sweep for four, fine to the Garner Gates. Then, a cut through deep backward point to the Ondaatje boundary off Leach took Kent to 378 for 1, two in front, and Somerset’s lead had evaporated like mist on a summer morning.

Bell-Drummond meanwhile, had assiduously fed Crawley the strike throughout his onslaught and had also reached the boundary twice himself, both times with cuts off Leach. Eventually though, it was Bell-Drummond who succumbed, leg before wicket as Leach finally beat his defensive stroke. His innings had been eclipsed by Crawley’s, but whether Crawley could have batted as he did without Bell-Drummond’s calm support is questionable. He walked off to generous applause having added 62 from 99 balls in two hours during which time he and Crawley had added 184.

Bell-Drummond’s wicket proved, finally for Somerset, to be something of a turning point. In his next over, Leach beat Marcus O’Riordan’s forward defensive stroke as assuredly as he had beaten Bell-Drummond’s and struck him on the pad. Leg before wicket to relieved cheers. It was testament to Leach’s equilibrium of mind that after the punishment he and the other Somerset bowlers had received during a long afternoon, he had kept his cool well enough to remove two top order batters in two overs. Kent 384 for 3. O’Riordan 4. Lead 8.

Joe Denly joined Crawley. Three overs later Overton took the new ball, and Denly drove him through mid-off to Gimblett’s Hill for four. But Leach had opened a door, and two overs later Pretorius was through it. Crawley attempted to cut a shortish ball and edged it straight to Rew. Kent 399 for 4. Crawley 238 from 267 balls in five minutes short of five and a half hours. It had been an outstanding innings which had brought Kent right back into the game, at least in terms of saving it. Crawley received a richly deserved standing ovation from the Somerset crowd as he walked back to the Caddick Pavilion, but the thought entered the mind, “Had he taken Kent quite far enough. Kent were four down, only 23 ahead.

Nathan Gilchrist came in to undertake the night watch, but the Somerset bowlers were now in hunting mode and Pretorius greeted him with five slips. He left his first ball which almost struck the off stump, was beaten to applause by the second but drove the last ball of the over straight back to the Lord Ian Botham Stand for four. Another boundary was clipped square off Overton before, with the fourth ball of the final over, with five slips still in place, Gilchrist’s backward defensive stroke was beaten by Pretorius and the off stump, struck halfway up, was left leaning back. Kent 409 for 5. Gilchrist 8. Lead 33. In the final three quarters of an hour, Somerset had taken four wickets and given themselves an opening for the final day, although Denly, who had reached the close with no real alarums, still stood in their way. As to those thoughts of the Championship, Surrey had long since disposed of Worcestershire. The final day against Kent would be crucial.

Close. Somerset 554. Kent 178 (J.L. Denly 61, C. Overton 3-38, M. Pretorius 3-52) and 409 for 5 (f/o). Kent lead by 33 runs with five second innings wickets standing.