Already Division One of the County Championship would be down to a two-horse race if Essex had beaten Somerset. Essex would have had three victories, the county champions Surrey two, and every other county without a victory.
But Essex did not win. In a two-day shoot-out on a seaming pitch, in which no batsman touched 50, Essex lost at the end of a gloriously sunny day by three wickets.
Somerset had gone into this round of championship matches in third place, though without a victory. By cobbling together this win which was far from pretty but suggested a spirit of resilience in their young cricketers, they have allowed themselves to dream that the county’s first championship title might arrive in the lifetime of these current players.
Somerset had resorted to pragmatism after their last home game against Nottinghamshire when they prepared a dry pitch, selected their new England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, and fought out a bore-draw. Out went all notions of spin (they did not bowl a single over of it), and in came a fifth seamer and a grassy pitch which offered some carry as well as seam movement: a bold move when Jamie Porter and Sam Cook were in the visiting side, but it worked, just.
On day one Somerset had sent Essex in but conceded a first innings lead of 28. On the second morning the home seamers had to bend their backs, and they did, well martialed by Lewis Gregory. The former England and Nottinghamshire pace bowler Jake Ball produced some of the sharpest deliveries and finished with four wickets on his home debut.
Somerset still had to score 167, the highest total of the match, against Porter and Cook who had taken all 10 of their first-innings wickets, and a fascinating insight it was too, into the degree to which their youngsters – however brilliant their white-ball cricket may be – still want to win the County Championship.
The overseas signings Matt Renshaw and Sean Dickson began vigorously – Dickson smacked Shane Snater for four and six from the first two balls after tea – but the Dukes ball kept seaming and wickets fell. After the two openers, Tom Lammonby was strokeless, whereas Andrew Umeed unleashed some princely drives and front-foot pulls. Remarkably, Simon Harmer, the Championship’s ace spinner, was not used until fewer than 50 runs had to be made and even then was then was only given two overs.
Tom Banton used to be the new Jos Buttler, and England’s T20 wicketkeeper/batsman, but come the crisis he put his head down and hit the ball along the ground like an old-timer, contributing a vital 29 off 50 balls. James Rew was bowled before the finishing line but several one-handed catches had kept his seamers going.
In the other Division One match Lancashire’s batting touched new heights of brittleness when Kent’s Wes Agar and Nathan Gilchrist rolled them over in 30 overs and made them follow on. In Division Two Joe Root sped to an unbeaten 92 off 90 balls against Glamorgan.
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