Tykes hit late in day
SOMERSET seamers Tim Groenewald and Craig Overton starred with bat and ball to drag their side back into things late on day one of their Specsavers County Championship match against Yorkshire at Scarborough.
Yorkshire were on top thanks to Liam Plunkett’s first four-wicket haul in almost two years of Championship cricket.
The winless visitors were 207 for nine and staring at another defeat having won the toss.
And while they are far from out of the woods just yet having been bowled out for 268, they are in much better health thanks to their tenth-wicket pair, who shared an innings-high 61 in 7.5 overs.
Groenewald hit 41 not out off 24 balls and Overton 35 off 43 before the pair shared all three wickets as Yorkshire closed on 42-3 from 18 overs.
Plunkett has been restricted to a diet of one-day cricket with Yorkshire and mostly England this summer.
The ex-Durham quick missed the start of the season with a calf injury, meaning this is his first Championship appearance of 2017.
Ironically, Plunkett’s last fourfor came against his former county here in August 2015.
He took advantage of a typical Scarborough pitch with plenty of pace to claim four for 73 from 21 overs.
He picked up two of four wickets to fall before lunch, one in the afternoon and the other with the first ball after tea.
The 32-year-old did an excellent job of leading an attack which lost Ryan Sidebottom to a muscle injury in his lower back midway through his fifth over.
Sidebottom left the field and is unlikely to bowl again in the match.
Adam Hose top-scored for Somerset with 62 off 128 balls.
Groenewald hit three sixes and two fours off Rashid in the 72nd over and hit four sixes in all off the England leg-spinner.
Overton, who hit one six, was bowled by Coad to wrap up the innings in the 76th over.
Had Bresnan managed to cling on at first slip when Overton was 22 and facing Plunkett, Somerset would have been 215 all out.
Aside from that, Bresnan had a pretty good day as he struck twice himself, including the first wicket to fall, and was on hand to take two catches.
He had Marcus Trescothick (15) caught at first slip in the 11th over, leaving the score at 20-1.
Plunkett then had Tim Rouse caught at second slip by Bresnan at the end of the 16th - 25 for two - before bowling opener Ed Byrom in his next as the score slipped to 30 for three.
James Hildreth played nicely for 32, but there was little he could do with a Bresnan snorter that took off from just short of a length and caught the edge.
At that stage, Somerset were 67 for four in the 26th.
Plunkett had Steve Davies lbw for 16 before Ben Coad bowled Jim Allenby through the gate for 19 during the afternoon, leaving Somerset at 141 for six after 44 overs.
Hose reached his fifty off 98 balls with nine fours and played nicely on both sides of the wicket. But he fell to Rashid shortly before the tea break - 180 for seven in the 60th.
Plunkett struck with the first ball of the evening session when he bowled Somerset skipper Lewis Gregory around his legs for 21 with 200 on the board in the 65th.
200 for eight soon became 207 for nine as Rashid had fellow spinner Jack Leach caught at mid-wicket in the 68th over having chipped a full toss to Bresnan.
Overton then had Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Alex Lees caught at first and second slip before Groenewald had Peter Handscomb caught at second as the score slipped to 21-3after 11 overs.