Yates stands tall as Bears battle against Somerset

Rob Yates went past 50 in red-ball cricket for the Bears for the seventh time this season

Vitality County Championship, Division One, Edgbaston (day one)

Warwickshire 277-6: Yates 69, Burgess 63*, Bethell 60*; Davey 2-49, Overton 2-59

Somerset: Yet to bat

Warwickshire 1 pt, Somerset 2 pts

Match scorecard

Winless Warwickshire showed some much needed spirit in their mission to beat the drop to Division Two as they battled back well against treble-chasing Somerset at Edgbaston.

Needing a win to maintain their pursuit of Division One leaders Surrey after a delayed rain-hit start, Somerset looked well in control when they reduced the home side to 165-6.

Only the typically solid form of opener Rob Yates with 69 had kept the Bears in the game but then Somerset ran into a resolute, unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 112 in 30 overs between Jacob Bethell, who is not out overnight on 60, and Michael Burgess, whose 63 so far has come off 79 balls.

Craig Overton and Josh Davey both took two wickets but Somerset’s bowlers were unable to keep up the required pressure - and Bethell and Burgess have given the Bears a platform to push for their belated first Championship victory of the season.

After a delayed start following morning mizzle, Warwickshire were put in by Somerset - and openers Rob Yates and Alex Davies were untroubled in sharing a 50 paertnership.

But, in the penultimate over before lunch, in his fourth over, Kasey Aldridge had Davies caught behind to a rash shot for 27.

Wickets then tumbled throughout the afternoon session for the Bears as Durham-bound former skipper Will Rhodes (22) and England Under-19s captain Hamza Shaikh, slicing to backward point on his first-class debut, both departed.

Then Davey removed Yates, to a careless waft outside off stump, and the in-form Ed Barnard for a duck, in successive overs just before tea.

But, from then on, as the sun shone, so did the Bears as Bethell and Burgess brightened the Birmingham gloom - and, with the prospect of a fit-again Chris Rushworth to bowl on Friday after being out injured since April with a calf injury.