County Championship: Tom Abell's wickets give Somerset edge over Hampshire

Tom Abell has taken nine of his 12 wickets this season to record a first-class average of 17.08

Somerset captain Tom Abell took three wickets on a rain-affected first day of their Championship game with Hampshire.

Abell (3-18) was the pick of the hosts' bowlers, with his spell helping to reduce Hampshire to 198-8 before rain stopped play at 15:30 BST in Taunton.

England's James Vince made a typically fluent 44 from 43 balls with 10 fours before Abell had him caught behind.

Rilee Rossouw (38), Joe Weatherley (28) and Jimmy Adams (23) all failed to push on after making solid starts.

Hampshire declined the offer of an uncontested toss but got their wish of batting first when Somerset put them in, and they got off to a good start through openers Weatherley and Adams.

But Adams fell to an inside edge off Tim Groenewald and medium-pacer Abell then trapped Weatherley lbw with some movement off the seam.

Vince looked in excellent touch, climbing into some customary cover drives and leg-side flicks before Abell drew an outside edge through to wicketkeeper Steven Davies to slow the run-scoring.

Groenewald picked up the big wicket of South African Hashim Amla (4) with the first ball after lunch and Somerset continued to chip away, as Lewis Gregory (2-41) produced inswingers to bowl Tom Alsop (20) and have Gareth Berg (4) lbw.

Berg's dismissal was the last action of the day as rain and then bad light took hold with just 58.1 overs bowled.