While Durham are at home to Sri Lanka A, in a game which starts on Wednesday (admission is free), Lancashire will be trying to take their place at the top of the County Championship. They trail Durham by five points with a game in hand, after Somerset’s nine-wicket win today.
The visitors were on the backfoot throughout after winning the toss and picking an extra seamer expecting plenty of help from the pitch, only for Somerset to post 480.
“It was done in a positive way,” coach Cook explained. “It was done to try and exploit what we thought would be a green seaming wicket. When you pick your players you hope they all perform and one or two just didn’t do well enough.
“I don’t think the selection of one player above another would have made a great deal of difference. In hindsight would you have put them in to bat, but Taunton is always tricky to read. I remember two years ago Somerset put us in to bat and we ended up getting 543. It’s always tricky.
“There were reasonable, rational reasons for doing what we did, they just played very well.”
Will Smith and Mitchell Claydon both had brilliant games personally, but when their overnight partnership was broken, Durham collapsed for the second time in the match.
Smith was caught in the slips for 114 off Murali Kartik as Durham went from 247-1 to 378 all out.
Claydon made 38 with the bat, just two less than his career-best score in the match where he produced best-ever bowling figures of 6-104.
A last-wicket partnership of 48 between Graham Onions (28 not out) and Stephen Harmison (27) left Somerset a victory target of 119.
Although they lost first-innings centurion Marcus Trescothick for just 25, playing on to Onions, Arul Suppiah’s calm 66 clinched a deserved victory for the hosts, their first against Durham in the Championship since 2003.
Twelfth man Scott Borthwick left the squad a day early to head to Lord’s. At HQ he was put through his paces by England spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and batting guru Graham Gooch.