County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 29^th, 30^th June, 1st and 2^nd July. Taunton.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable for selection for personal reasons.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, , S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, I.P Kishan (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, B.A. Hutton, F. Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 379. Nottinghamshire 214 for 3. Nottinghamshire trail by 165 runs with seven first innings wickets standing

Third day – Different gravy

As I meandered around the ground at the start of the afternoon session, extending my lunchtime walk to a second circumnavigation, stopping in the usual gaps between the stands, waiting for something to happen, someone said, “Notts are just ambling along.” He was far from being alone in expressing that view. It was that sort of day. Lazy in the heat, mainly accumulative cricket in the middle, and a match moving forward at a slow march. Even the Quantocks seemed to be asleep. Gone were the vibrant colours of spring which brought the hills to life as the cricket season got under way. Now those colours had faded as if the apparently endless summer heat had consumed their vibrancy, as indeed it probably had. But, for all that, one thing stood out above the rest of the day. An innings of sheer bliss and skill from Ishan Kishan, signed by Nottinghamshire for two Championship matches while their usual wicket keeper was away on international duty. As I had walked in the shade of the tunnel under the Lord Ian Botham Stand, a Somerset supporter who had travelled from the West Midlands said to me, unprompted, and with a hint of awe in his voice, “Kishan is different gravy. A class above anything else we have seen. Worth travelling just to see him.”

But first, Nottinghamshire had continued their innings from the second day. Beginning with 214 runs on the board for the loss of just three wickets they were in a position to put Somerset’s 379 under pressure. They had a stuttering start. Several edges flew short of or past the slips but, as on the second day when the bat was beaten regularly in the first two sessions, it began to look as if the batters would survive unscathed as they pushed, almost literally, the score forward at three runs an over. Then Jack Leach, from the River End, bowled to the centurion of the second day, Ben Slater. Slater attempted to drive him through the covers and was caught behind by James Rew. There was no discernible turn, but flight and line did the work and someone said, “Best spinner in the country.” Nottinghamshire 235 for 4. Slater 124. Deficit 134. Somerset supporters perhaps just a little further forward in their seats.

Enter Kishan. Immediately, he looked polished, and within half a dozen overs someone said, “He has a lot of time to play.” Almost immediately, the new ball became available and turned to Matt Henry at the Trescothick Pavilion End. To Henry’s well pitched up second ball, Kishan went up on his toes and drove square through point with barely a movement of the bat, and such movement as there was made the mouth water. As if to register the perfection in the stroke, the ball ran along the creases as it sped to the Priory Bridge Road boundary.

The overnight batter still at the crease, Jack Haynes, now pushed Henry to point to bring up his fifty. And from there, he continued Nottinghamshire’s metronomic progress. Occasionally, he found the boundary, four times in the 22 remaining overs to lunch, two of his fours coming from successive balls off Overton, one a cover drive to the Somerset Stand which raised a cry of, “Shot!” But, for the most part, he ticked the scoreboard over, pushing the ball quietly to either side of the wicket for easy singles and a three driven off Henry through the on side towards the covers store. Twice, Somerset thought they had him. Once, the Somerset players let forth a huge appeal for caught behind off Leach while Leach jogged up the pitch looking certain he had his man. Once, Vaughan beat him to another huge appeal. “He’s gone!” someone shouted. He hadn’t though, for the umpire’s finger remained steadfastly by his side. And thus, playing with due care and attention and a modicum of luck, he reached lunch.

Kishan’s morning meanwhile was played, as the man behind the Lord Ian Botham Stand was to point out at lunch, on a wholly different plane. Between joining Haynes and lunch, he scored 53 runs to Haynes’ 34. The ball after Haynes went to his fifty from 92 balls with a quietly nudged single into the off side, Kishan pulled Henry over the boundary between the Lord Ian Botham Stand and the Hildreth Stand for six. It was a pull, but what a pull. The bat swung around his entire body in a full arc of 360 degrees, travelling as smoothly as it did for any of his other strokes. A sweep to deep midwicket off Leach would have brought four more had it not been for a brilliant piece of fielding by Sean Dickson in front of the Priory Bridge Road Stand as the phalanxes of schoolchildren invited for a second day cheered. Kishan played all around the wicket with equal aplomb, a two off Henry being steered with a perfectly placed open face towards the Colin Atkinson Pavilion.

With lunch just over half an hour away, he took a more bullish step down the wicket to Vaughan and a drive straight of mid-off to the gap between the Hildreth and Lord Ian Botham Stands for four registered the fifty partnership from 96 balls, Kishan having 29 of them. A lofted drive off Vaughan landed in the third row of the Hildreth Stand. With an over to go to lunch, Kishan was seven runs short of his personal fifty. Now, he wrote his own script. Overton had replaced Vaughan at the Trescothick Pavilion End and Kishan opened the face to his first ball steering it through backward point for two. The third ball, he drove, whipped might be a better description, through extra cover for four and repeated the stroke off the sixth, this time with barely any movement of the bat. Astonishing. Again, the ball crossed the rope, easily outrunning Tom Lammonby, and ran onto the sheeting covers in the cover store. Kishan had fashioned his fifty from 83 balls, although it seemed less, raising his bat as the players walked off for lunch. It brought warm applause from the Somerset crowd, both, I imagine, for his runs and for the style of their making. As he left the field, a sober look at the scoreboard revealed that Nottinghamshire were only 57 runs behind Somerset with six wickets still standing and two batters, one of them of a different class, firmly established at the crease. Somerset’s 379 was now looking decidedly vulnerable.

Kishan was playing like one of those players who, in years gone by, were reason enough in themselves for people to travel to the cricket. Different gravy. In the first forty minutes after that lunchtime comment, Kishan played four strokes which would have been different gravy in any cricketing age. A cover drive to the Somerset Stand off Aldridge was played with a bat that flowed through the stroke with the grace of an eagle floating on the breeze, and yet the ball flew along the ground as if propelled by a rocket. Vaughan, replacing Aldridge, was driven straight with comparable style to the Trescothick Pavilion. Leach, replacing Vaughan, was driven off the back foot through cover to the Somerset Stand, “Just a fraction short, and he was quickly onto it,” the comment from the upper level of the Trescothick Pavilion. With his next ball, Leach over compensated, “That one was over pitched,” and the ball was unceremoniously dispatched through extra cover to the Garner Gates for four more.

It wasn’t just the boundaries. Kishan’s defence was compact, precise and unobtrusive. His singles were mainly pushed serenely into the gaps. As the afternoon progressed though, Leach began to trouble the batters, even if Kishan continued to look set to bat for an eternity. And then, Leach, pitching a foot or more outside his off stump, suddenly turned the ball sharply into the left-hander. Kishan was caught via the pad off the inside edge, the ball looping to Tom Abell at short leg. To say Kishan’s wicket came as a surprise would be an understatement, but Nottinghamshire, 373 for 5, Kishan 77, were now within six runs of Somerset’s 379, and Kishan was warmly applauded all the way to the rope.

While Kishan’s innings had held the attention, Haynes had not been idle. He had added 25 runs since the players returned, including a four pushed through midwicket off an Aldridge full toss. There had been a small success for Somerset too when, against the run of his bowling, Aldridge, after Haynes had taken a single off the first ball, had bowled a particularly pacey and accurate five balls to Kishan. Kishan failed to score and the ground broke into applause. It had been the 110^th over of the innings and Kishan’s failure to score had left Nottinghamshire on 347 for 5, three runs short of a third batting point. Upon which, a rumour spread that, playing in the second of his two Championship matches, Kishan had not been informed of the need to collect bonus points within 110 overs. Rumour or fact? Either way, it made a good story.

With Lyndon James now at the crease, Nottinghamshire passed Somerset’s 379 courtesy of an edge off Leach which passed outside James’s off stump where a fourth stump would have stood and through Rew’s legs less than six inches off the ground. It would be a harsh call to name it a chance. James was then beaten twice in succession, and Haynes suffered a thick edge. There was a ripple of hope for Somerset, but then the methodical rhythm of the Nottinghamshire innings resumed, if at a slightly higher pace. Tom Lammonby bowled his left arm medium pace in place of Vaughan from the Trescothick Pavilion End but with little effect. Aldridge replaced him and Henry replaced Leach, but the outcome was the same. Balls continually pushed through the infield for singles punctuated by periodic boundaries. Among them. James leaned into an on drive for four off Leach and Haynes took ten from an over from Henry including a boundary pulled peremptorily through midwicket to the Somerset Stand, and another driven through extra cover. That brought up the fifty partnership before tea was reached on 431 for 5 with an ominously growing Nottinghamshire lead of 52.

I spent the first 50 minutes or so of the evening session walking the ground. During that time, Nottinghamshire added 47 runs in 15 overs of continued methodical score-building. I saw Henry bowl without a slip, as stark a comment on the conditions, and the Nottinghamshire score, as any. The heat still beat down everywhere but in the shade. And all the while Nottinghamshire ground unremittingly on. “I’m going back to my seat to have a sleep,” another walker said. “The Kookaburra ball will drive spectators away,” added another. James eased past his fifty to polite applause, the hundred partnership meandered by, and Haynes passed 150, all feeding the general ennui, at least for Somerset supporters. Nottinghamshire supporters might have taken a different view, for by the time I reached my seat their team had built a lead of 98 with still five wickets standing and three and a half sessions of the match remaining.

And then, things began to happen. James drove Leach, now bowling with just a single slip after having had three close fielders at times during the afternoon. The ball flew uppishly towards mid-off for a single, but just out of reach of the silly-mid-off fielder. Two balls later, Haynes attempted to scoop Leach towards fine leg, missed, and was struck on the pad. In an instant Leach was facing the umpire, arms held aloft, his appeal insistent. It was short-lived, for the umpire’s finger was raised almost instantly. Haynes had been at the crease two minutes short of six and a half hours. He was applauded all the way to the rope and Nottinghamshire were 478 for 6. Haynes 157. Lead 99. Now, Somerset began to make progress. The left-handed Patterson White came forward to defend against Vaughan, the ball turned, went past the edge, Patterson-White momentarily, no more, lifted his foot and Rew had the bails off. Sharp. Nottinghamshire 483 for 7. Patterson-White 1. Lead 104. At the end of the over, two Nottinghamshire supporters, refugees from the still intense heat, appeared at the top of the steps into the elevated section of the Trescothick Pavilion and found a pair of seats in the back row, still in the shade. “If the sun comes up here mate,” one said, “We’re in trouble.”

In the middle, where the heat must have been truly intense the day long, Nottinghamshire briefly steadied themselves as their two supporters at the back of the Trescothick Pavilion discussed declaration strategies. But two sweeps for four apart from Brett Hutton off Leach, one fine to the Trescothick Pavilion, the other to Gimblett’s Hill, Nottinghamshire showed no signs of pushing for a declaration. As they ground on, James brought up the 500 with an on drive from another of the endless, run-gathering singles which had driven Nottinghamshire’s score across much of the day. Eventually, Hutton swept Leach to the Somerset Stand for four bringing a shout of, “Come on Brett!” from behind me.

But it was Leach who came on. The next ball pitched on leg, turned sharply and looped off Hutton’s defensive edge to Overton, the only slip. Nottinghamshire 508 for 9. Hutton 16. Lead 129. “Fivfer as well,” someone said. An over later, Farhan Ahmed attempted to turn a very full ball from Vaughan to leg, miscued, and the ball popped to the left of Leach at short mid-on from where he dived to take the catch. Three balls later, Leach flighted a ball into James, pitched it a stump’s width outside off, straightened it, and James edged to Overton, still the only slip. Nottinghamshire 509 all out. James 66 in four minutes under three hours. Lead 130. And amongst it all, memories of that innings from Kishan which would repay replaying to the mind’s eye time and again.

Somerset had a single over to face before the close, from Patterson-White’s slow left arm, bowled from The River End, the traditional spinners’ end at Taunton. Somerset sent out Henry to face it accompanied by Tom Kohler-Cadmore with clearly no intention that Kohler-Cadmore should find himself at the batting end before the close. It was a curious night watch somewhat akin to Robin Marlar’s in the 1950s when he was sent out to undertake the watch against his wishes. He was stumped second ball for six. There was no indication that Henry didn’t want to be there. Neither though was there any indication that he intended to play his normal game, presumably safe in the knowledge that if he was out, the players would leave the field for the day.

With five fielders around the bat, he drove the first ball through point to the players’ dugouts for four. With the rest of the field set deep, he drove the second ball deep into that field but declined the easy single which presented itself. He attacked the third ball and missed. The fourth he cut to point and again declined the single. The fifth he attempted to cut and missed. The sixth, he stepped back, attempted a sharp drive through point, missed and was bowled. Somerset 4 for 1. Henry 4. Deficit 126 and a minimum of 96 overs to face on the final day on a pitch finally showing signs of helping the spinners.

Close. Somerset 379 and 4 for 1. Nottinghamshire 509 (J.A. Haynes 157, B.T. Slater 124, I.P. Kishan 77, M.J. Leach 6-121, A.M. Vaughan 3-111). Somerset trail by 126 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.