County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Essex. 2nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th May. Taunton.

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

Essex. D. Elgar, P.I. Walter, T. Westley (c), J.M. Cox, M.J.J. Critchley, M.S. Pepper (w), N.R.M. Thain, S.R. Harmer, S.J. Cook, C.A.K. Rajitha, J.A. Porter.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to field

First day – Bowlers dominate

“Have you seen the pitch?” was the first thing asked of me after I reached the ground. It was asked as I reached the top landing of the Trescothick Pavilion, as if the pitch for this match was something out of a horror film. “It’s as green as the rest of the square,” the questioner added by way of explanation. As I reached my seat in line with where second slip would stand to the right hander, I took a good look at the strip of green between the two sets of stumps, stumps that were necessary to pick out the match strip from the rest of the square, the practice pitches apart. Then, “That’s the greenest pitch I have seen outside of Club cricket,” said the incoming text from the online watcher. Whilst it wasn’t exactly horror film material, it was no surprise to hear that, on winning the toss, Somerset had asked Essex to bat.

There was a good first day crowd, fifteen hundred or a few more by my eye at the start, perhaps growing to two thousand or so by lunchtime. The weather was glorious for cricket. A cloud-free, sunny day, very warm in the sun and perfectly warm in the shade. From the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, the Quantocks were resplendent in their spring colours of yellow, sandstone red and fresh green. In fact, there were three distinct shades of green. Two different coloured crops, or perhaps crops and grass, and the leaves on the trees, now all fully attired for the summer. There had been no Championship cricket at Taunton for nearly a month and the change in the Quantocks since my last visit reflected that. The interregnum, the glorious weather and the size of the crowd all doubtless contributed to the buzz of animated chatter which reverberated around the ground before the start.

Somerset began with Craig Overton, Trescothick Pavilion End, and Josh Davey, River End. There had always been something about Overton and Davey bowling in tandem which brought the best out of both of them. On this day though, Overton did not quite hit the mark in his first spell, and Dean Elgar and Paul Walter each drove him through the off side for four. Walter took two fours in an over from Davey too, one driven. Those two boundaries were against the run of Davey’s bowling which constantly tested the batters. The most common sound to break through the early chatter was a succession of gasps as he beat the bat, or when the batter played and missed. Once, there was a huge instantaneous appeal for caught behind against Elgar, the ball being caught low down by Rew. The atmosphere was already pumping up, and rose still further when Elgar followed the appeal by slowly walking two or three steps towards the Pavilion. And then fell as he returned to his crease indicating to Rew that the ball had brushed his thigh pad.

Lewis Gregory soon replaced Overton, first in tandem with Davey, and then with the returning Overton who came back in place of Davey. After 24 runs in the first six overs they, Migael Pretorius and Jack Leach, who was bowling forty minutes before lunch, applied a tourniquet to the scoring. In the remaining 25 overs of the morning, just 57 runs were squeezed out of some very accurate bowling, and the ball crossed the boundary only four times. The pressure on the batters was constant. In one over from Gregory, Walter edged the first ball along the ground to third slip, was the subject of a leg before wicket appeal to the second and took a single off an inside edge from the fourth. Against Davey, Elgar played and missed at one ball and left the next which swung in, narrowly missing the stumps, both balls bringing gasps from the crowd.

Overton bowled better in his second spell, from the River End, beginning with nine consecutive dot balls and then the wicket of Walter off the tenth. Walter, who had already been beaten twice in the first three balls before he was out, attempted to drive but chipped the ball limply to Davey at mid-on. Overton clenched both fists and jerked his arms towards his chest in celebration. Walter looked hard at the pitch as he walked off, but it didn’t change the score. Essex were 40 for 1. Walter 22. In the next over, Gregory had a leg before wicket appeal turned down against Elgar, went past the edge and had another leg before wicket appeal turned down against the new batter, Tom Westley. Yet another rap on the pad followed and another unrequited appeal brought laughter, although applause followed at the end of the over.

It looked a turgid time for batters, at one point Elgar batted eight overs for a single, but they looked determined to grind their way forward. For Somerset, the impression, from beyond the boundary at least, was of unlucky bowlers, Davey in particular, repeatedly beating the bat for little reward except the dearth of runs, although it did raise the question of whether they were getting the ball in quite the right place. Eventually, Elgar found a ball to hit and drove Overton, still bowling to three slips, with the minimum of bat movement through the covers to the Somerset Stand boundary while Westley clipped Gregory through midwicket to the Ondaatje boundary. The bowlers did not relent, and the two boundaries immediately heralded a phase of five overs, from Overton, Pretorius and Leach, in which just two runs were scored. It was an almighty, engrossing tussle between two determined sides. Although Somerset were tightening their grip, Essex kept them out while conditions appeared to ease. As the overs went by, for Somerset supporters at least, the easing conditions became a growing concern as the beaten bats and appeals diminished in number while the last nine Essex wickets remained stubbornly intact.

As the Essex score edged slowly up, Elgar reminded of the potential threat to come with another softly played drive off Pretorius, now bowling with two slips, wide of mid-off to the Ondaatje Stand boundary. “Shot!” the accolade from someone in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion. That took Essex to 62 for 1 in the 25^th over, 2.5 an over. A brighter sign for Somerset was that Leach was beginning to look threatening. Pretorius too. Since arriving at Taunton, Pretorius had been a more effective bowler than he had sometimes appeared, taking more wickets than the impression he created. Here, he nearly had Elgar twice in an over. There was an edge straight but very low to Overton at second slip. Overton stayed on one knee and Rew walked across and patted him on the back as if he had dropped a catch. A replay is clear though. The ball bounced a foot in front of Overton.

Off the next ball, Pretorius let forth a huge appeal for leg before wicket. This time the umpire’s finger was raised and, among the cheers, the man next to me let forth a “Yeah!” as loud as the appeal and about two feet from my ear. The tone was more of relief than celebration. Essex 66 for 2. Elgar 30. From there, although Leach beat the edge of Westley’s bat a couple of times, Essex eased their way to lunch on 81 for 2. The view of the online watcher on the morning, “I think there is not much pace, no movement off the pitch, and no swing which is the opposite of what they expected I would think. Pretorius doing more than the others. Looking altogether more dangerous.” To that, I would have added the threat, if not from meaningful movement, from Davey’s opening spell.

With the crowd now around two thousand, and the players back in the Pavilion, spectators were invited onto the outfield. It was a perfect day to be out there with the sun bright and very warm and the sandstone tower of St James church resplendent in the sun and overseeing all. About two hundred people walked through the gates, most to look at the pitch, or just to stand and chat as they walked. One father played softball cricket with his very young son and another spectator lay on the ground and sunbathed. The talk was of Somerset’s disappointing early season form and the morning’s play. “We did O.K.,” one supporter said, “Bowled dry.”

After lunch, Somerset continued to bowl dry, only five boundaries came from the bat in the 34 overs of the afternoon session as the two sides continued to battle. But it was Somerset who made the greater headway. Five wickets fell, the last three to Jack Leach who bowled unchanged from the River End throughout, frequently threatening the edge of the bat. He was turning the ball, although by no means excessively, while Gregory rotated his pace bowlers from the Trescothick Pavilion End. Essex added only 74 runs in the session, just 2.2 an over. Davey played his part too, keeping the scoring in check and taking the other two wickets.

Gregory opened the afternoon bowling and Jordan Cox drove him through extra cover to Gimblett’s Hill then pulled him through midwicket to the Ondaatje Stand, both for four. As punch was met with counterpunch, Westley was beaten several times by Leach until, after batting seven overs for one run, in Davey’s first over after replacing Gregory, he played defensively and edged straight to Overton at second slip. Essex 115 for 3. Cheers. Westley had batted an hour and three quarters, or 80 balls, for 20 while a total of 75 runs were added. Two overs later, Davey struck again, Cox chipping him to Vaughan at mid-on. Essex 118 for 4. Cox 26 in three minutes over the hour. Davey 7-2-13-2. More cheers.

Matthew Critchley had joined Cox at the fall of Westley’s wicket and was immediately in trouble as the batters continued to struggle. In his first over from Leach he was beaten three times, once to incredulous gasps that the ball had not taken the edge, and also subject to a leg before wicket appeal. There was loud applause for Leach at the end of the over. When he faced Leach again, Critchley was beaten again and then edged inches wide and short of Overton. More gasps. Michael Pepper meanwhile replaced Cox and looked to be settling until he attempted to drive his eighth ball, from Leach, through the covers and edged it straight at Overton’s right shin at second slip. Essex 121 for 5. Pepper 0. “I wonder what Simon Harmer will make of this?” asked one anxious Somerset supporter as the applause subsided. He must have spoken the thoughts of many others.

He perhaps wondered all the more when Critchley followed in Leach’s next over. Having survived a leg before wicket appeal when attempting to sweep one ball, he played defensively at the next, a straight ball destined to strike middle and leg, played outside it and departed leg before wicket. Essex 122 for 6. Critchley 3 from 21 balls. Four wickets had fallen in the space of eight overs for the addition of seven runs, two of those a no ball from Davey. And then, Simon Harmer. He looked fairly secure at the start, but Leach soon forced him right back on his stumps. He played across his pads to what looked like another straight ball which would have struck middle and leg and the ball crashed into his pads. Essex 136 for 7. Harmer 3. Leach 18-7-25-3. The Somerset team celebrating. The crowd buzzing.

Noah Thain, who had driven Davey through extra cover to the Somerset Stand and then cut him through backward point to the other end of the Somerset Stand off successive balls, now dug in with the newly arrived Sam Cook and the gruelling toe-to-toe contest of the morning replaced the sudden fall of wickets. They added 19 runs in the two balls short of ten overs to tea, only 15 of those coming off the bat. There was a single boundary, struck through extra cover by Thain off Davey. One ball, from Leach to Cook, lifted sharply, and the bat was beaten more than once. Otherwise, Leach was still getting turn, although he had taken his wickets with balls which seemed to go straight on. Tea was reached with Essex on a slightly more healthy 155 for 7 from 65 overs with Pretorius bowling to four slips as the Somerset pressure did not relent.

In the first 20 overs after tea, Essex found the boundary just once, a square drive from Cook off Gregory to the Somerset Stand, although it brought appreciative applause from the crowd. Otherwise, the evening brought the same unrelenting battle between bat and ball that the first two sessions had brought. Leach continued to trouble the batters, bats were beaten by the turn, edges came but fell safe, and twice Thain was beaten by balls that turned and bounced. At one point in the early evening, as he gnawed away at the batters, Leach bowled six overs for four runs at the end of which he had figures of 29-12-34-3. When Pretorius replaced Gregory, he beat the bat four times and found the edge twice in his first two overs. The tension was palpable and finally erupted into an enormous cheer when Pretorius, with the new ball, badly tucked up Cook with, for once, some movement off the seam, forcing him to top-edge a pull over square leg. Vaughan ran in from in front of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion scoreboard and took the catch. It had been an intense innings from Cook. Just how intense, and the demanding nature of the bowling he had faced, can perhaps be gauged from the fact that his eight runs had taken him 73 balls.

He had though stayed with Thain for 25 overs and together they had added 43 runs, 1.7 an over, to raise Essex from 136 for 7 to 179 for 8, perhaps a crucial partnership if low scores continued through the match. Pretorius continued to trouble the Essex batters as much as Leach, and two overs later he defeated an airy looking off drive from Thain, found the edge and Rew took as straightforward a catch as a first-class wicketkeeper is likely to receive. Essex 183 for 9. Thain 41 from 112 balls in one minute over two hours. The Essex innings though wasn’t quite over. Jamie Porter took three fours in an over from Josh Davey, a top-edged cut over the jumping Overton at second slip to the Trescothick Pavilion boundary, a lofted drive to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion boundary which just cleared mid-off and a drive along the ground between cover and point to the Caddick Pavilion boundary.

That took Essex to 199 for 9 and the 200 was passed when Kasun Rajitha, Essex’s short-contract Sri Lankan overseas Test bowler, lifted Overton just over square leg for another four. The end finally came in Overton’s next over when Porter was rushed into a straight drive and bowled, the ball bisecting middle and off stump. Essex 206 all out. Porter 19 from 22 balls. Rajitha 7 not out. It was a score which Somerset would perhaps have settled for at the start of the day. But, in the light of Leach’s performance and the tight lines and testing bowling from Somerset’s pace bowlers, Pretorius, and earlier on, Davey, in particular, the spectre of Cook, Porter and Harmer could not help but loiter in the Somerset mind.

Somerset had to face six overs before the close from Cook, Trescothick Pavilion End, and Harmer’s off spin from the River End, Essex not delaying the threat from spin. Vaughan walked out to open with Andy Umeed trailing twenty yards behind him looking, as the person next to me put it, “Like the schoolboy who has had the summer holiday to complete his project having not done it.” Umeed was opening in place of Sean Dickson who would be out of the side for some time with the broken hand suffered at The Oval. Within five balls, the threat presented by the Essex attack faced Somerset square in the face. Cook forced Vaughan into a hurried defensive stroke. He succeeded only in edging the ball low to Critchley’s left at the third slip of four. Critchley reached down and towards second slip, scooping it up as his knees touched the ground. Somerset 0 for 1. “Vaughan plays his defensive shot from first slip to mid-on,” the comment of the online watcher. Davey walked out to take the night watch, and he and Umeed saw Somerset quietly to the close, although Davey turned Cook through long leg to the Priory Bridge Road boundary to a shout of, “Hooray!” It had been a day on which the pitch had promised much to the bowlers but, other than for Leach, seemed to do little to fulfill that promise. And yet, the bowlers dominated, and might have done so even more but for some determined Essex batting. Somerset might yet have much to do on the morrow.

Close. Essex 206 (N.R.M. Thain 41, M. Pretorius 3-24, M.J. Leach 3-35). Somerset 9 for 1. Somerset trail by 197 runs with nine first innings wickets standing.