Nottinghamshire enjoyed the better of the spoils on the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Somerset at the CA County Ground, Taunton.
The visitors lost the toss and found themselves in the field but were back in the pavilion midway through the afternoon after bowling their hosts out for only 163. Notts closed on 145 for four, just 18 behind.
Brett Hutton, who had taken nine wickets in the match when Notts beat Somerset at Trent Bridge in April, including 6 for 45 in the first innings, was at it again. The 30-year old knocked over the first three home batters, then returned to finish the innings with two more to return figures of five for 34.
“I’m really happy, obviously,” he said. “It’s nice to get those personal achievements but more importantly, after losing the toss to bowl them out and us to be only four down by the close I think it’s been a great day.”
As part of an ECB trial this week’s first class matches and the next round will all be played using a Kookaburra ball, rather then the traditional Dukes ball.
“We were ready for a long day in the field,” said Hutton. “We’ve practiced quite a bit with the Kookaburra and luckily we’ve been able to tap into Broady’s (Stuart Broad) knowledge, as he’s got bags of experience with them.
“We expected it to do a little bit early on but we expected things to be tough.”
Hutton was helped by a couple of early miscalculations, with two of his first three wickets down to the batter not playing a shot at him.
“They are the best kind of wickets. The batter sees something different but you feel, ‘oh, lovely, I’ve not hard to work that hard for that one.’
After an eight over spell Hutton came out of the attack and felt he was about ready. “I was blowing by then as Carts (Matt Carter) was getting through his overs in about 30 seconds at the other end.
“I was pleased to come back after lunch and finish it, we’ve struggled in the past with knocking over the tail but was able to do it quite quickly today.”
Matt Carter claimed three wickets in his first red ball match for Notts since the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 and Hutton was full of praise for the spinner.
“There’s something about him. He’s so skilful, as he shows in his white ball matches. I thought he landed it brilliantly and it was just like he’d not been missing for so long. He gets through his overs so quickly and he did well.”
Notts finished the day well after losing their fourth wicket at the same stage as where Somerset lost theirs, with Ben Slater, who finished on 67 not out and Steven Mullaney, 23 not out, putting on 40 in just 8 overs.
“I think the difference today was the added intensity and aggression from Mull towards the end of the day, that’s given us the chance to move on tomorrow and get a big lead if we can.”
