Somerset believe this is the year to win first title
Somerset (216 and 200) beat Yorkshire (96 and 202) by 118 runs Only three counties have never won the championship, and Gloucestershire did so in WG Grace’s time before it became officially constituted in 1890.
That leaves Northamptonshire and Somerset – and Somerset, alone in the first division in having won their first two matches, might remove themselves from that list this summer.
Somerset have most of the ingredients to win a title: plenty of seamers, a fine pair of spinners in Jack Leach (who missed this game through illness) and Dom Bess, a high level of fitness – as would be expected after Andy Hurry’s return as director of cricket – and a rising star batsman in Australia’s Matt Renshaw, who has scored matchwinning centuries in both games.
“I believe we can go right the way through,” said Hurry, a former Marine, “and not only in this competition but all the competitions.”
England will come calling but Leach and Craig Overton are unlikely to be absentees the whole season. The age range of Somerset’s players also looks right with plenty of maturity, and if Marcus Trescothick is extremely mature, his experience will assist Tom Abell, the captain, who is only 24 to his 42.
Thanks to Renshaw’s first-innings century, and 82 by Abell in their second, Somerset set Yorkshire a target of 321, by far the highest total of the game, and won comfortably. India’s Cheteshwar Pujara fished for the first ball of day four, an outswinger by Lewis Gregory, and thereafter the ball kept doing enough for Somerset’s seamers for there to be only one winner, provided they took their catches, which they did in spite of a chilling wind.
Yorkshire, who will be bolstered by the return of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow against Essex on Friday, only once came close to a partnership in either innings, when Jack Leaning and Tim Bresnan added 56 either side of lunch as the ball softened. “We shouldn’t have got bowled out for 96,” their head coach, Andrew Gale, said, adding that his players were sure Renshaw nicked off early in his innings but the “catch” was not given.
The Leaning-bresnan stand was broken by Abell, who had taken only three first-class wickets but who gave himself a spell after Josh Davey had limped off in mid-over with a quad strain, and who made one nip back into Bresnan. Abell threw himself into bowling as he has done into captaincy and was not the slowest of the seamers.
“We’ve not started very well the last couple of years,” said Tim Groenewald, who took five wickets in all. Indeed, this is the first time since 1993 Somerset have won their first two championship games. “Yes, it’s a happy place and we’re really well led by the skipper and the coaches.”
Renshaw is due to be available for all the championship games, as he adapts all too quickly to English pitches ahead of the 2019 Ashes, when he can be expected to open Australia’s batting, with or without David Warner.
Another ingredient – the extra pace of Jamie Overton – is some way away. He has yet to play a Somerset second XI game this season and it is “one small step at a time”, Hurry said. But his twin brother Craig is trying to increase his pace, not through any change of action but with increasing strength and confidence after his three winter Tests, and he finally ended Leaning’s solid defence for 68 when the batsman top-edged a pull at a bouncer and was caught at squareleg by Renshaw.
Two years ago, Somerset were top of the table on the final day – until Middlesex and Yorkshire set up a run-chase which Middlesex won and with it the title. This year, firstdivision counties have only 14 games each. Somerset, after their fine start, might only have to win six of their last 12 to strike themselves off that list.