A richly entertaining first day at the County Ground, Taunton, ended with Somerset on 423-6. James Hildrith with 142, his fourth Championship century of the summer and 19 year old Jos Butler, who added 88, put on 210 for the fifth wicket after the Notts attack had removed the top four batsmen for 126.

Nottinghamshire were forced into a number of changes from the side that completed the ten wicket victory over Warwickshire last week. Added to the enforced absences of both Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad, due to Test Match duty, were Steven Mullaney, who injured an ankle in practice on Wednesday and Ryan Sidebottom who tweaked a knee an hour before the start of play. Paul Franks, Darren Pattinson and Charlie Shreck all returned to the seam bowling ranks, whilst Matt Wood earned a first Championship start of the season against his former county.

Nottinghamshire made a dream start, dismissing Marcus Trescothick with the first ball of the match. The Somerset left hander missed a full pitched delivery from Darren Pattinson which uprooted his leg stump. Having been on the receiving end of scores of 99, 97 and 98 from the former England opener in his last three matches against them, there was no disguising the joy and celebration of Chris Read’s side.

Attacking field placings and a sportingly short boundary on the western side of the ground contributed to a flurry of early runs before Pattinson struck again, having Nick Compton taken by David Hussey at second slip for 17 – a routine chance, although Hussey tumbled over backwards in celebration.

Arul Suppiah, who had hit 151 in this fixture twelve months ago, perished on 30 this time. Pushing at Andre Adams, he nicked the ball straight to Alex Hales at first slip. 77-3, having chosen to bat first, the home county were up against it as Notts celebrated their first bowling bonus point.

Zander De Bruyn had reached 44 by lunch, having survived a drop by Ali Brown at slip, from the bowling of Adams. However, with the first ball of the afternoon session, he fell lbw to Pattinson – umpire Jeremy Lloyds upholding the confident appeal, to give the bowler his second consecutive perfect start to a session.

From then on it became really tough going for Notts as James Hildrith and Jos Butler produced a flurry of attacking strokes on both sides of the wicket. Read rotated his bowlers but neither seam nor spin could slow the scoring rate as the pair raced to tea at 230-4.

Hildreth reached his century from 128 deliveries, with 13 boundaries, whilst his younger partner produced the more eye-catching strokeplay, which also included a majestic straight six from the bowling of Samit Patel.

Patel eventually got his man though, Buttler falling in the 79th over after trying one extravagant shot too many. The stand had been worth 210 runs, coming in just under 3 hours and from 46 overs.

The second new ball was taken one over later and Pattinson – with his first delivery of the post-tea session, induced Hildrith to pull a short delivery straight to Mark Wagh at deep square leg.

At 347-6 Notts sensed an opportunity to make further inroads but they were frustrated by another stand that threatens to take the game away from them. Craig Keiswetter (43 not out) and Peter Trego (36 not out) continued to profit against a tiring attack in the final half hour of the day to ensure that Somerset picked up maximum batting points from their first innings.

Notts skipper Chris Read admitted it had been a tough day for his side. “We had to work hard for those wickets. It’s slightly disappointing we didn’t get a couple more out but it’s a big day tomorrow. We need to work hard in the first session and get these last four wickets fairly cheaply – then we need to score well. The key is for us to be still in the game at the half way stage."