County Championship: Hampshire end opening day in command against Somerset
- Published
Joe Weatherley's half-century was his ninth in first-class cricket
LV= County Championship Division One, The Ageas Bowl, Southampton (day one): |
Somerset 180: Hildreth 87; Barker 3-33 |
Hampshire 109-0: Weatherley 65* |
Hampshire (3 pts) trail Somerset (0 pts) by 71 runs |
Hampshire dominated the opening day of the season as injury-and-illness hit Somerset were left rueing the decision to bat first at the Ageas Bowl.
Led by Mohammad Abbas (2-28) and Keith Barker (3-33), the home attack made the most of the surface's early assistance to reduced Somerset to 61-5 at lunch.
Only James Hildreth's skilful 87 saved them from total ruin as they made 180.
Joe Weatherley (65) and Ian Holland (41) then drove home Hampshire's advantage reaching 109-0 at stumps.
Without eight first-team players including Tom Banton (broken finger), Jack Leach and Craig Overton (unavailable) and Lewis Gregory and Jack Brooks (illness), Somerset found the going tough after winning the toss.
Despite the strong wind in Southampton, Pakistan seamer Abbas perfectly blended a nagging line and length with just enough nip off the seam and soon had Ben Green snaffled at second slip by Liam Dawson and Lewis Goldsworthy pinned in front.
Kyle Abbott, who shared 87 wickets with Abbas last summer as Hampshire's title hopes were dashed in the final game of the season, also weighed in with the early dismissal of captain Tom Abell for just a single.
When Steven Davies lost his off stump playing no stroke at a ball that jagged back from Barker, Somerset were five down and in real trouble.
But Hildreth stood firm. Mixing patience with controlled aggression, he found robust support in Roelof van der Merwe (28) as the pair added 73 before van der Merwe had his bails trimmed by James Fuller.
With partners running out, Hildreth was yorked by left-arm spinner Dawson to leave them 158-7 and the Somerset innings was soon wrapped up.
Weatherley, who struggled for runs in Hampshire's pre-season matches, then made the most of the pitch starting to flatten out with a punchy half-century off 83 balls with six fours as he and opening partner Holland notched a century stand to take Hampshire to within 71 runs of Somerset's first innings.
Hampshire all-rounder Keith Barker told BBC Radio Solent:
"It was a good day. We started really well, they had a period in the middle where they got a few good runs but we managed to claw it back in the end.
"It was really important we didn't let them get away and if someone had offered us that [180] we'd have taken that.
"We just need to bat well and really take the game away from them."
Somerset's James Hildreth told BBC Radio Somerset:
"You come into the first day of the season and everyone has high hopes so to spend some time in the middle on a challenging surface against the new ball feels great.
"I'm hoping this might be the start of a decent run - it would be nice to go through a bit of a purple patch and get some runs.
"The balls was jagging both ways - it was challenging out there.
"I wasn't involved in the decision making [to bat first] but they showed it wasn't a 180 pitch - there were runs to be had there. We just didn't bat well."