County Championship: Nottinghamshire dominate Somerset on day two

Luke Fletcher (second left) hit his fifth first-class half-century and then became the first bowler to pass 50 Championship wickets this season

Nottinghamshire dominated day two at Taunton to leave Somerset in deep trouble following a batting collapse.

After resuming on 282-6, a maiden first-class century for Liam Patterson-White (101) and Luke Fletcher's 51 helped the visitors to 448 all out.

Fletcher (4-21) then took the first four wickets in Somerset's reply to leave the hosts in disarray.

Captain Tom Abell top scored with 35 as they reached 87-7, 361 runs behind, when bad light ended play.

Abell, James Hildreth (12) and Tom Lammonby were the only Somerset batsmen to reach double figures as Dane Paterson (2-34) also made inroads for Nottinghamshire.

Somerset had carried 18.5 points forward to the second stage of the revamped County Championship, but their title hopes took a blow after a damaging day.

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The hosts had one of their poorest mornings of the season, with their lack of penetration with the ball not aided by some sloppy fielding which saw chances go down.

Left-hander Patterson-White was in form to capitalise as the number eight batsman quickly moved from his overnight 46 to a half-century off 44 balls.

Tom Moores (46) helped put on 124 for the seventh wicket, and Patterson-White surpassed his previous first-class best of 73 not out before he was lbw to England spinner Jack Leach.

Brett Hutton weighed in with a useful 31 and Fletcher ensured there was no respite for the Somerset attack with a half-century which included seven fours and a six.

Fletcher then made life difficult for the home batsmen, trapping Steven Davies lbw at the end of the first over of their innings.

After tea, Lammonby and Abell both edged Fletcher behind in the same over as Somerset went from 51-1 to 52-3 - and the fast bowler reached 50 Championship wickets for the season in the process.

A brief floodlight failure offered some respite, but Fletcher and Moores combined again to dismiss Lewis Goldsworthy before Paterson sent back Hildreth leg-before.

When Roelof van der Merwe fell in similar fashion to Hutton and Tom Banton was caught behind off Paterson, Somerset were left facing the prospect of the follow-on on day three.

Somerset captain Tom Abell:

"We have been completely outplayed for two days, having had the better of conditions when bowling yesterday.

"We didn't take advantage of that and when we turned up this morning we talked about the fact that the game could go either way.

"The fact that we are now so far behind suggests we didn't apply ourselves well enough at all.

"It's a good pitch for batting on, although there was some swing. When you reply to a total of over 400 you are under the pump and we haven't shown enough character or backbone to cope with that."

Nottinghamshire's Liam Patterson-White:

"I'm absolutely delighted. Having made my debut here two years, it's great to come back and get some runs.

"I was nervous on 99, but concentrated on remembering it is just one run, the same as any other. It was an incredible achievement by the team to have them seven down by the end of play.

"Our target tomorrow is to keep the momentum going and hopefully create a winning position."