For the second day in succession of Durham’s LV= County Championship match against Somerset play was abandoned without any action on the field, due to bad weather
Read the day one round up here:
After electing to bowl first and dismissing Durham for 125, Somerset has established a 95 run first innings lead over the hosts by the close of play on day one.
Michael Di Venuto and Will Smith open with Philander and Overton sharing the new ball. Philander made the early breakthrough with the score on 22 as he has Michael Di Venuto caught behind for 14.
Mark Stoneman and Smith then combined in partnership and Durham passed 50 in the 19th over, reaching 53 before Will Smith was caught behind by Craig Kieswetter off the bowling of Criag Meschede for 18.
Paul Collingwood was next at the crease, he got off the mark first ball with a boundary ,but was caught at second slip two balls later by James Hildreth.
Gordon Muchall and Stoneman combined to guide Durham to lunch only 3 down but after the lunch break seven wickets fell for only 42 runs as Craig Overton and Meschede finished with four and three wickets respectively.
Defending a total of 125, things started better for Durham with the ball as Graham Onions had Arul Suppiah trapped lbw first ball of the innings. Somerset progressed to 6 before Onions again struck dismissing Barrow (3) in the same manner.
Lewis Gregory (18) pulled a Callum Thorp delivery to Ian Blackwell at mid on with Somerset’s total falling to 32-3 in the ninth over.
Mitchell Claydon claimed the fourth Somerset scalp with his sixth delivery, removing the off stump of Hildreth (18).
It was Ruel Brathwaite who removed Peter Trego on 40 after a delivery that kept low bowled the danger man with Somerset 95-5.
Meschede and Kieswetter extended the visitors total past that of Durham in the final session of the day, with the former eventually caught by Collingwood off Thorp having posted a career best 62.
Vernon Philander contributed just 8 runs before he was caught by Stoneman off Thorp. He was quickly followed back to the pavilion by his replacement at the crease, Craig Overton, who was dismissed first ball.
At the close Somerset were 220-8, leading by 95 with Max Waller 7* and Kieswetter 60*.
At the close of play Durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Mark Stoneman, “It’s never easy at this time of year and there’s still a bit in the pitch for the bowlers so obviously we are up against it as a batting unit, it’s just a case of trying to break those shackles and once a few scores come off I am sure everything will be fine. It’s a bit of a blip, there’s a lot of quality in the dressing room and we just have to keep working hard and I am sure there will be some big scores on the board.
“Everybody is working hard, going out with the intent of making big scores and it’s not quite happening at the moment. We’re going to keep coming in and practising hard and hopefully turn things around.
“It certainly wasn’t easy out there today, there was something there for the bowlers, the odd one was bouncing a bit and there was a bit of swing and movement off the pitch but the longer you’re out there you get more used to what’s happening but you’re never really set. The one advantage Somerset had batting second was that when they got in and around our score they had a couple of guys who, knowing how the pitch was playing, where able to chance around a little bit, play a bit more positively and it came off for them.
“It did start to get away from us a bit but those wickets at the end brought the game back towards us – 90 runs in the context of the game is quite a lot but if we manage to knock their tail over and have a good second innings we can still be in a good position to win the game.”