County Championship 2024. Division 1. Nottinghamshire v Somerset 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th June. Trent Bridge.

Due to someone in my household testing positive for COVID, I opted not to attend this match. The reports are therefore written through watching the Nottinghamshire CCC live stream.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable due to a groin strain. Craig Overton captained the Somerset side.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, W.A. Young, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, T.J. Moores (c), L.W. James, C.G. Harrison, O.P. Stone, D.Y. Pennington, D. Paterson.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, A.R.I. Umeed, T. Kohler-Cadmore, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton (c), M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball.

Overnight. Nottinghamshire 360. Somerset 293 for 4. Somerset trail by 67 runs with six second innings wickets standing.

Third day 25th June – A hard watch

As soon as I switched on the live stream it looked like a day for batting, and as it turned out, it was. The sky was blue, the shadows sharp, and the pitch had a decidedly benign attitude, although there was some, if predictable, turn for Calvin Harrison’s leg breaks. Watching the players and people in the crowd, when the camera caught them, it quickly became apparent that it was a hot day. The shady parts of the stands were better populated than the sunny ones while, between overs or when retrieving a ball from beyond the boundary, players moved about with that hint of tired reluctance that overtakes the body as a searingly hot day wears on.

At the start of the day, Tom Abell and James Rew had manifested an air of uncertainty that had been absent the evening before. They had picked their way through some tight bowling from Dane Paterson, bowling from the Radcliffe Road End, and Ollie Stone from the Pavilion End. In the first ten overs, they added just 21 runs, with only one boundary off the bat, Paterson clipped to fine leg by Rew. “We are letting them get on top of us,” I imagined a Somerset supporter saying. Despite Abell and Rew not looking settled, Nottinghamshire persisted with a defensive field for their pace bowlers, although when Harrison replaced Paterson he was afforded three close fielders. Nottinghamshire also seemed reluctant to push on with the game, frequently engaging in mid-over conversations.

Abell’s uncertain start ended with a hurried defensive stroke being beaten by a ball from Harrison which struck him on the pad. Somerset 315 for 5. Abell 111. Deficit 45. Kasey Aldridge was then at the wicket for precisely five minutes when Nottinghamshire stuck again. He jabbed at a ball from Dillon Pennington, a foot wide of off stump, attempting to guide it past Harrison at second slip. It took the edge and flew wide of Harrison who scooped it up with a long, low dive. Somerset 316 for 6. Aldridge 0. Deficit 44. Then Rew misjudged a straight defensive stroke and was caught behind off Pennington. Somerset 321 for 7. Rew 49. Deficit 39. Within three overs Somerset had lost three wickets for six runs including the two overnight batters after a partnership of 89. I found myself staring blankly at the screen and the possibility that a potentially substantial lead might be about to be transformed into a small deficit.

At the fall of Rew’s wicket, the morning had lasted a ball over 12 overs for 28 runs. Craig Overton and Migael Pretorius tackled the situation head on. Overton’s first ball, from Pennington, was bowled almost a foot and a half wide of off stump, perhaps shading away even further. Overton calmly reached for it and cut it down and through backward point for four. It was but a start to his partnership with Pretorius. To his third ball, Pretorius stood up and drove Pennington off the back foot through the covers. The cover fielder, Haseem Hameed, sank towards the oncoming ball, misjudged, and the ball ran to the boundary.

Those two strokes lit the fuse for a brief explosion of runs. In an over from Pennington, Overton stood on his crease and drove him through the covers, clipped him to fine leg and then repeated his drive through the covers, all for four, a pair of singles taking the total for the over to 14. In the next over, from Harrison, another 14 runs came, Pretorius lofting two on drives, one for six and one for four and ending the over with a neat piece of foot movement to drive off the back foot through the covers for four more. The runs gathered in the first 12 overs of the day had been matched in two. Such are the myriad twists and turns of four day cricket. Then, off the first ball of the next over, Overton’s rushed defensive stroke was beaten by a ball from Pennington which might have cut in marginally and Overton was leg before wicket. “Inevitable,” someone might have said, “batting like that,” but the partnership was worth 35 runs in four overs and, at 356 for 8, it took Somerset to within four runs of the Nottinghamshire first innings. Overton 20 from 13 balls.

Perhaps early morning bowling conditions had played a part in the first three wickets, but we were now into the second hour of the morning and the Somerset lower order were batting with explosive ease. In the 11 overs remaining before lunch, Pretorius and the post-Bazball edition of Jack Leach added 70 runs. Twelve came in one over from Harrison, Pretorius taking four from a reverse sweep and another six over long on. Twelve came from Harrison’s next over too. Leach, defying the close field of a slip and forward and backward short legs, swept hard causing the short legs to take evasive action while the ball, with the help of a bottom edge, ran to the fine leg boundary. When Harrison pitched nearly two feet wide of off stump, Leach reached, and slog swept the ball over long on for six. Now a Pennington over came in for punishment. A six over midwicket from Pretorius, a single, and then, from Leach, a firm-footed drive for four through midwicket before a flicked late cut beat the single slip for four. It took Somerset to 400 for 8 and a lead of 40, their early morning wobble now slipping from view.

A straight six from Pretorius came off Harrison before a single heralded a more sedate run up to lunch. The single, on driven by Pretorius off Stone took him to fifty from 32 balls in three quarters of an hour. The fifty had included four sixes, three of them off Harrison over the short boundary. The final four overs to lunch brought 12 runs, three an over, but it felt like the lull after the storm that had ravaged the Nottinghamshire bowling. Somerset had reached 424 for 8, a lead of 64 with Pretorius on 55 from 41 balls and Leach on 32 from 36. That hour before lunch, exhilarating though it was for a Somerset supporter even from nearly 200 miles away, also asked a question. If Somerset’s lower order could bat like that on the Trent Bridge pitch, what might Nottinghamshire’s top order do?

The question became all the stronger when the onslaught, from Pretorius at least, resumed after lunch. Leach fell early, caught behind for 37 from 49 balls, attempting a cover drive off Harrison. Somerset 435 for 9. Lead 75. With Jake Ball at the crease, not renowned for his batting skills, Pretorius pushed even harder on the accelerator. He took 19 off an over from Harrison including a pull over straight midwicket for six and three fours including a lofted straight drive, one of the more spectacular sights in cricket. There was another driven six before, finally, Ball was leg before wicket for nought from five balls, playing back to Pennington. The wicket left Pretorius unbeaten on 95 from 71 balls in eight minutes over an hour and a half of ferocious hitting for which he received a standing ovation from what was a sparse Nottinghamshire crowd. Somerset 470. Lead 110.

Nottinghamshire immediately set themselves to the task of batting long enough to save the game. In the 26 overs they faced before tea, they scored 72 runs, less than three an over. That they did not lose a wicket and that there was only a very occasional beaten bat laid Somerset’s task bare for all to see. There was no help apparent from the wicket, and Nottinghamshire showed no sign of folding under the pressure of a 110 run first innings deficit, reduced by tea to 38. Hameed had settled into his customary occupy-the-crease mode, scoring 34 from 82 balls while Ben Slater had focused more on gathering runs, scoring 36 from 54 balls. In the position in which Nottinghamshire found themselves it was an effective combination. Of the seven boundaries scored in those 26 overs, six were driven as Somerset kept the ball full, although with little sign of movement. Hameed, who can bide his time endlessly, once drove Ball square, the bat following through in classic style. He drove Pretorius square too just as effectively but this time the bat was more perfunctory in its movement. Ben Slater looked as secure as Hameed, and two drives through the covers, one off Ball and one, off the back foot, off Overton, were in the same class as Hameed’s square drives. The only real alarum for Nottinghamshire was an edge from Slater off Leach which might have been dropped at slip, I couldn’t be sure, but I wondered if Somerset were missing Lewis Gregory, their usual slip fielder to spin.

By the end of the final session, it was clear that Somerset would face a steep, uphill task on the final day if they were to win the match. As before tea, there was barely a beaten bat to cheer the Somerset supporter. Nottinghamshire scored at just over three runs an over with some ease, often in spasms of boundaries with 12 of the 32 overs bowled being maidens or realising only a single run. It was a hard watch from a Somerset armchair. From a stand at the ground, short of retreating to a bar, there is little for the supporter of the bowling side to do during such passages of play but sit and watch their team’s prospects slowly subside.

There would have been more in the proceedings for the Nottinghamshire watcher as their team worked to make their position safe. And work they did. The pitch may have lost all sign of life, but the crease had to be occupied and runs had to be gathered to build a Nottinghamshire lead if the game was to be put out of Somerset’s reach. I stuck to my armchair, and watched every ball of that final session, driven by that perpetual hope of the cricket supporter in such situations that fortunes might shift.

They didn’t. As the sun continued to beat down, Nottinghamshire ground on. Slater did rouse himself to cut Aldridge through deep backward point for four and four overs later pulled him for six. After that, it was eight more overs before his next boundary, Ball turned through deep midwicket for four and seven more after that before Pretorius was pulled through midwicket for four more. It was laborious, grinding stuff. There were ten more overs to the close, but that was the last time Slater reached the boundary.

As to Hameed, once he took two fours from the same over when Andy Umeed’s occasional leg spin was tossed into the mix. Hameed cut him square and drove him through the covers. Umeed was kept on for another over and Hameed lofted him straight back over his head and out of the attack for his pains. Otherwise, it was steadfast defence, an occasional pushed single here, a steered one there and the gradual diminishing of Somerset hope. Increasingly, it looked like a wicket on which a decent first-class batter, batting with intent could stay in until the mists of time rolled in.

It came as a complete surprise therefore when, with about twenty minutes to go to the close, a ball from Overton hinted at cutting in, rushed Hameed into jabbing down and bowled him. It was a stunning ball from Overton, especially in the conditions in which it was bowled. It was one of those eye-popping, head-forward moments which are the instinctive response to something wished for but totally unexpected. Nottinghamshire 172 for 1. Hameed 91 in nine minutes under three and a half hours. It raised a spark of hope in the Somerset mind, but as Stone, on the night watch, and Slater saw out the five overs to the close thoughts of Somerset spending a long final day in the field returned. Overton did hit Stone on the hand, but otherwise Nottinghamshire looked in no trouble at all as they closed 68 runs ahead.

Close. Nottinghamshire 360 and 178 for 1. Somerset 470 (T.B. Abell 111, M. Pretorius 95*, T.A. Lammonby 87, D.Y. Pennington 5-96, C.G. Harrison 3-173). Nottinghamshire lead by 68 runs with nine second innings wickets left.