County Championship: Somerset on top after Hampshire collapse

Craig Overton was recently called up to the England ODI team

Somerset's bowlers dismissed Hampshire for 147 before enforcing the follow-on to take complete control on day two.

After the morning session was lost to rain, Somerset added 36 runs to their overnight 310-6 with Gareth Berg (4-64) taking three of the wickets to fall.

Alfonso Thomas (3-38) and Craig Overton (4-24) then starred for the away side to ensure Hampshire would have to bat again with a 199-run deficit.

The Hampshire openers then fell as they closed on 41-2, still 158 runs behind.

It was undoubtedly a bowler's day at a gloomy Ageas Bowl, as 10 wickets fell between lunch and tea alone with 16 batsmen dismissed in total.

The hosts began well with Berg completing his best figures for Hampshire, having Lewis Gregory, Abdur Rehman and Overton caught behind the wicket with seam movement as they were all out for 346.

After a rain-delayed start, play got under way at 13:45 BST

Hampshire were then taken apart by the experienced swing bowling of Thomas, who had Jimmy Adams caught at short midwicket before he found Michael Carberry's outside edge and pinned Sean Terry lbw to leave the score at 21-3.

Overton then removed Will Smith and Liam Dawson (25) and when Adam Wheater was bowled playing no shot to Gregory (2-54), Hampshire were reeling at 65-5.

And despite Berg (38) offering some resistance, Hampshire were bowled out for 147 - their lowest completed score of the season.

Following on, the same problems resurfaced with Adams and Terry bowled by Thomas and Peter Trego respectively to leave them staring at a third loss of the season.

Meanwhile, Hampshire have appealed the decision to fine them £4,000 and hand out suspended points deductions for breaches of discipline by their players.

Hampshire director of cricket Giles White:

"It's obviously a disappointing day. I thought we came out and bowled well, but the game has moved forward and unfortunately we've been on the wrong end of it.

"There is some variable bounce there and we had one of those phases of play where we lost a lot of wickets in a rush, which obviously doesn't help.

"It put us in a poor position and we never recovered. Now we've got it all to do tomorrow."

Somerset wicketkeeper Michael Bates:

"We got the most out of the pitch. It was a little bit uneven, a bit up and down. We bowled really well, consistently getting the ball in the right area, the area that was misbehaving.

"Overall it has been a great day for us. Batting-wise we would have liked another four runs to get a batting bonus point at 350 but the way the game's panned out we cannot complain.

"Our bowlers have done a brilliant job and we are in a great position to finish it off."

Somerset bowler Alfonso Thomas appeals for a wicket in Hampshire's first innings

Thomas celebrates taking the first-innings wicket of Hampshire opener Sean Terry