Nottinghamshire enjoyed the better of the spoils on a rain-ruined first day of their latest LV= County Championship match against Somerset at Taunton. Only eight overs of play were possible, during which time the home side reached 20-2 having been put in by Chris Read.
Notts’ director of cricket Mick Newell said it was obviously a very important toss to win: “It’s sometimes a little difficult to read the pitches down here as they are prepared differently to how we prepare them at Trent bridge but this one looked to offer a little bit of swing early on and we were delighted to bowl first and get two wickets in an over.
“It’s important that we can gather as many points as possible in the first innings and this gave us a good start to try and achieve that.”
Newell paid credit to Luke Fletcher, who dismissed Marcus Trescothick for the third time this season. “There aren’t many bowlers that Marcus has struggled against,” he said. “
“But to be fair to him he has said that he’s found Luke a little difficult to face. Luke obviously bowled a good length and got him with one that swung a little bit.”
Notts made four changes from the side which drew at Durham in their previous Division One fixture with Alex Hales and Samit Patel returning to the batting fold after Lions’ duty, Darren Bravo stepping in for his championship debut and Fletcher was also recalled to take the new ball.
The four players to miss out were Sam Kelsall, Graeme White, Adam Voges and Darren Pattinson.
On a wicket that had more than a tinge of green about it Charlie Shreck began with a tidy maiden to Marcus Trescothick. Arul Suppiah picked up a couple in the next over but he was soon the first to fall, trapped lbw in the fourth over by Fletcher.
The delivery that got the wicket may have kept a touch low but Notts didn’t appear to mind and three balls later they were celebrating again as Trescothick played around one from the same bowler and umpire Richard Illingworth raised his finger for another leg before decision.
The dismissal completed a happy trio of wickets this season for Fletcher – getting Trescothick in the CB40 and t20 matches at Trent Bridge and now completing the set by getting him out in the 4 day format also.
From a position of 7-2 Somerset were very much up against but James Hildreth and Nick Compton began the rebuilding job with a boundary apiece.
Compton, who scored a century at Trent Bridge when the sides met there last month, brought up his 1,000th run in Division One this season with an offside push for two.
At that point, with the score on 20-2 after eight overs, heavy drizzle began to fall and the umpires signalled for the players to leave the field.
Despite one or two very brief interludes, rain continued to fall steadily throughout the afternoon. At 5.20pm the umpires called a halt to their infrequent inspections and abandoned play for the day.