Somerset v Yorkshire: LV= County Championship (Day Two)

ADIL RASHID gave the England selectors an early nudge with a century for Yorkshire yesterday as they retained the initiative in their opening LV= County Championship match against Somerset during day two at Taunton.

The all-rounder hit 108 off 190 balls, his third century in as many four-day matches against Somerset, as Yorkshire reached a healthy firstinnings total of 450, including five batting points.

They were, however, well placed to bat Somerset out of the game at 402-5.

Liam Plunkett then took two of the three home wickets to fall as Somerset closed on 166-3 from 57 overs.

They need 301 to avoid the follow-on today.

Rashid’s form with the bat is starting to turn heads. After last summer yielded 825 Championship runs, with three hundreds, he has started this campaign in equally impressive fashion.

Now, if he is to build upon his five one-day and five T20 international appearances in 2009, it would seem all he has to do is get among the wickets with his leg-spin. He took 29 wickets at an average of 46.82 in 2013.

Yorkshire president Dickie Bird is present at Taunton, and encouragingly he said during a first-day visit to the press box: “I watched him bowl in the nets this morning, and he’s back to where he was a few years ago.”

Captain Andrew Gale shares a similarly optimistic view about Rashid’s future.

“If you look at Graeme Swann’s retirement, there’s no one really putting their hand up as a frontline spinner for England,” he said.

“The lad’s 26-years-old and he is just coming into his prime. He’s got over 300 firstclass wickets, and we’ve seen what he can do with the bat.

“There’s no reason why, during the next year, or maybe two, he can’t represent England.”

Rashid and Andrew Hodd, who impressed for 55, continued their sixth-wicket partnership yesterday morning, taking it to 108 in 30 overs.

But that was when Somerset started their recovery, which was stunted by two Plunkett wickets after tea.

Craig Overton and Johann Myburgh took two wickets apiece as Yorkshire were bowled out just after lunch before Chris Jones (75) and Nick Compton shared 91 for the second wicket to take Somerset to 127-1 after tea.

Plunkett then bowled Compton and had Jones caught at leg slip by Alex Lees during a hostile spell which saw him switch to bowling round the wicket to hit Jones on the helmet and then send him packing.

“I’m not looking too much into the England stuff at the moment,” admitted Rashid, who said Yorkshire are happy with their position in the match.

“Hopefully I can have another one or two good seasons with Yorkshire with the bat and ball and then maybe it could get looked into.

“We would have taken this (position in the game). Somerset is always a hard place to get a result but we’ve got them three down and hopefully we can knock them over for less than 300 or 350 and win.

“All the seamers bowled well. Siddy started it off by getting Trescothick and Plunkett changed the game a bit with his two wickets.”

SCORECARD

At Taunton.

Overnight: Yorkshire 342-5 (A Lyth 85, A U
Rashid 84 no, G S Ballance 77).

Yorkshire First Innings
A U Rashid c Kieswetter b Overton ....108
A J Hodd c Trescothick b Overton ........55
L E Plunkett not out ...............................19
R J Sidebottom c Trescothick b Myburgh 13
S A Patterson b Thomas ....................... 7
J A Brooks lbw b Myburgh .................... 6
Extras (lb10 w2 nb10 pens 0)..22
Total (132.5 overs) .................450
Fall: 1-69 2-71 3-133 4-179 5-294 6-402 7-
403 8-430 9-441
Bowling: Thomas 29-5-80-1. Gregory 30-
7-113-1. Meschede 28-5-105-3. Overton
24-6-72-3. Myburgh 21.5-0-70-2.

Somerset First Innings Close
M E Trescothick b Sidebottom ..............20
C R Jones c Lees b Plunkett .................75
N R Compton b Plunkett .......................32
A N Petersen not out .............................12
J C Hildreth not out ...............................16
Extras (b5 lb2 nb4 pens 0) ......11
Total 3 wkts (57 overs)...........166
Fall: 1-36 2-127 3-136
To Bat: J G Myburgh, C Kieswetter, C A J
Meschede, L Gregory, C Overton, A C
Thomas
Bowling: Sidebottom 13-4-33-1. Brooks
13-4-32-0. Patterson 15-5-35-0. Plunkett
12-0-48-2. A U Rashid 3-0-11-0. Lyth 1-1-
0-0.