County Championship: Lancashire build lead despite Keaton Jennings injury before Somerset rally

Keaton Jennings has now scored a combined 507 runs in his last two innings against Somerset, starting with last summer's career-best 318 at Southport

Somerset took full advantage of a lucky break against Lancashire at Taunton to reduce the prospect of a second successive County Championship defeat.

Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings looked set to post a mammoth total when he was forced to retire hurt on 189 with a hamstring injury half an hour before lunch.

Instead, seamers Lewis Gregory (3-81) and Peter Siddle (3-97) and six catches for young wicketkeeper James Rew helped dismiss Lancashire for 554, a lead of 113.

Head coach Glenn Chapple told BBC Radio Lancashire: "'We think its a torn hamstring, at this stage we're not sure how bad, hopefully it'll be a grade one but it could be a grade two.

"We'll have to wait to see what the severity of it is but it could be a proper hamstring tear."

Somerset openers Tom Lammonby (20 not out) and Sean Dickson (15) then safely negotiated 11 overs in the gloom, six of them against England record Test wicket-taker James Anderson, to reach 41 without loss on a day when rain forced a premature close with 30 overs unused.

Still trailing by 72, Somerset still have plenty to do before they can fully extricate themselves from a sticky situation, but it would take something unforeseen for their batsmen to implode on what is essentially a flat track.

Resuming on 302-1, Lancashire quickly saw Josh Bohannon caught behind for 85, before they lost Jennings.

Completing a routine single, Lancashire's captain suddenly pulled up clutching his hamstring. Having received treatment and called upon the services of Luke Wells as a runner, Jennings faced a further two balls before admitting defeat and limping off, a victim of the cold conditions.

Somerset certainly made the most of it as Gregory struck twice in the space of three deliveries with the new ball to have both former skipper Dane Vilas and Colin de Grandhomme caught behind.

George Bell and George Balderson then shared a stand of 56 in 14.4 overs either side of tea to secure a fifth batting bonus point.

But Balderson swung at a Gregory delivery that left him to depart for 26, while Siddle accounted for Bell (36) and Tom Hartley (34).

All three were caught by Rew, who was then one just dismissal short of equalling the Somerset Championship record of seven in an innings, held jointly by Rob Turner (against Northants in 2001) and Luke Ronchi (against Hampshire in 2015).

But Rew was denied when England spinner Jack Leach mopped up the tail, inducing Saqib Mahmood to hole out to mid-off and then bowling Anderson in the act of reverse sweeping immediately after the tea interval.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network