Western Daily Press (Saturday)
England men in the runs
RORY Burns’ half-century laid the foundations for Surrey’s total of 191 for four on day two of their County Championship Group Two match with Somerset.
After the first day washout, Burns, looking to reclaim an England place, had to fight hard for his runs in bowler-friendly conditions before falling for 55. Ollie Pope contributed 33 and Hashim Amla 29, while Lewis Gregory claimed his 300th first-class wicket in taking two for 60 from 18 overs before bad light ended the day eight overs early.
The match finally got under way at 2pm after a major mopping up operation and Somerset elected to bowl first on a green looking pitch.
In the absence of the rested Craig Overton, Josh Davey took the new ball with Gregory and both went past the bat on numerous occasions.
The Surrey openers also survived a run-out scare in the opening over when, with Mark Stoneman stranded in mid-pitch after calling for a quick single, George Bartlett missed the stumps at the wicketkeeper’s end, running in from cover.
Tom Banton was behind the stumps in place of Steve Davies, who is facing a minor operation. He was kept busy as the ball beat both batsmen without finding an edge.
Stoneman had moved to 18 in a stand of 43 with Burns when he failed to cope with a seaming ball from Gregory and was caught at third slip by Roelof van der Merwe.
Amla was tested by the Somerset pace attack at the beginning of his innings, but gradually he and Burns became more assured.
Burns demonstrated confidence with a glorious cover drive for four off Marchant de Lange and moved to a half-century off 90 balls, with six boundaries.
By tea, he and Amla had taken the score to 116 for one. But both went soon after the interval, crestfallen at the manner of their dismissals.
Amla had passed 18,000 runs in first-class cricket before he carelessly pulled a short ball from Gregory to fine leg where Eddie Byrom held a comfortable catch above his head.
Somerset then made another big breakthrough in the following over when Burns played a back-foot defensive shot off De Lange and squeezed the ball onto his stumps off an angled bat, departing for 55.
Suddenly Surrey were 119 for three, but the ball was no longer going past the bat as Ben Foakes and Pope set about rebuilding. Pope looked assured in facing 59 balls, but then went to pull a delivery from Tom Abell and top-edged to the back-pedalling Banton, who judged it well looking up into the floodlights. Ben Foakes and Jamie Smith saw Surrey through to the close.