Renshaw puts hosts in charge
MATT Renshaw ensured that Somerset’s batting worries were eased with a fluent century on the opening day of their County Championship match with Warwickshire.
The Australia Test player’s superb 129, featuring 19 fours and two sixes, paved the way for an imposing score of 351 for four.
Tom Lammonby contributed 56 to an opening stand of 137, while skipper Tom Abell made 70 as his side set about ending a run of seven successive Championship defeats, stretching back to last summer.
Oliver Hannon-Dalby was the pick of the Warwickshire attack, taking three for 62, but it was a largely out-of-sorts bowling display by the visitors after winning the toss.
With a short boundary on the town side of the County Ground – and a pitch showing only a tinge of green – Somerset appeared to have given their under-pressure batting unit every opportunity to find form.
Renshaw and Lammonby played positively from the start, and the two left-handers brought up a fifty stand in the 15th over.
Aussie Renshaw looked an even more complete player than in his first successful spell with Somerset and moved to fifty off 80 balls, with eight fours and a pulled six. By lunch Somerset were 130 without loss.
Lammonby had reached his halfcentury off 76 balls, with a crisp ondriven four off Australian seamer Nathan McAndrew, who was proving expensive on his debut.
But Hannon-Dalby had given little away and the tall seamer made the breakthrough in the fifth over after lunch as Lammonby edged to Sam Hain at second slip.
Abell and Renshaw confidently built on what had gone before, the latter reaching a chanceless century off 158 balls. The shot that brought up Renshaw’s ton was among his best, a flowing back-foot forcing stroke through the off-side for a boundary off McAndrew.
Abell looked equally comfortable, with the ball rarely beating the bat.
The pair brought up the second century stand of the innings before tea – which was taken at 249 for two – when Renshaw edged a seaming Hannon-Dalby delivery through to wicketkeeper Michael Burgess.
Abell had moved to a composed 92-ball fifty. The final session saw him joined by Tom Banton, who helped take the total to 277 before Abell was caught behind down the leg side pushing forward to occasional off-spinner Rob Yates.
Banton moved to 47 not out by the close, but James Hildreth was caught at point for 23, cutting a wide ball from Hannon-Dalby.
Renshaw said: “It was probably a good toss to lose, because I think we probably would have bowled had we won it. I just tried to enjoy myself. You have to work hard for a couple of hours, but then batting can be fun here and I love playing at Taunton.”
LV County Championship – Division One – Taunton: Somerset 351-4 (M T Renshaw 129, T B Abell 70, T A Lammonby 56) v Warwickshire.
■ Jamie Smith served up defiance aplenty to register a hard-earned hundred and give Surrey the upper hand on day one of their County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Bristol, writes Andy Stockhausen.
Without a score of note in two previous outings this season, the 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman found his touch to raise 111 not out from 239 balls, holding sway for five hours to help the Londoners recover from a poor start and reach the close on 294 for four.
Having played second fiddle to England batsman Ollie Pope in an alliance of 151 for the fourth wicket earlier in the day, he then shared in an unbroken stand of 106 with Sam Curran as Division One leaders Surrey took control.
Eager to be a part of England’s future under new managing director Rob Key and captain Ben Stokes, Pope weighed in with a notable 84, while free-wheeling Curran served up a late-afternoon flourish to finish unbeaten on 57 and issue a timely reminder of his own to the selectors.
Matt Taylor and David Payne took two wickets apiece for the hosts.
Payne said: “We could have done with a couple more wickets, but I don’t think we bowled badly.
“It was a tough toss to call – it looked a bit green, there was a bit of cloud and it looked like we made the right choice. It did a bit early on, but we dropped a couple of chances and, had we taken those, it might have been a different kind of day.
“At least we didn’t allow them to go away at fours and fives, and we managed to control the scoring.
“Mohammad Amir has not played red ball cricket for quite some time and it’s something we are aware of. We are going to have to manage him a little bit and that’s why he didn’t take the second new ball.”
LV County Championship – Division One – Bristol: Surrey 294-4 (J L Smith 111 no, O J D Pope 84, S M Curran 57 no) v Gloucestershire.