Somerset young guns drive agenda as Essex toil for points

Josh Thomas and James Rew, two young left-handers born on the same day a year apart, were instrumental in helping Somerset build a commanding platform in their Rothesay County Championship match against Essex at Chelmsford.

Thomas, the younger of the pair, was making his first-class debut but showed no sign of nerves or inexperience in making a confident 86. Rew, already with 11 centuries to his name at just 21, took up the cudgels when Thomas was out to record his eighth score of fifty-plus this season before falling to the new-ball on 74.

The 20-year-old Thomas had stepped in as a concussion substitute for Tom Abell last week against Hampshire and retained his spot as the former Somerset captain sat out the mandatory one-match period. The rookie's 127-ball innings started at pace and did not slow down until he had accumulated a run-a-ball fifty. With 14 fours and a six, he dominated a 121-run stand for the second wicket with Tom Lammonby that laid the foundations for Somerset's 339-6

Rew, at the crease for 115 balls, was not as outwardly flamboyant as Thomas but eked out a 90-run partnership in 29 overs with Lewis Goldsworthy for the fifth wicket. Jamie Porter and Doug Bracewell extracted liveliness and bounce from a green-tinged wicket that had encouraged Somerset to bat after winning the toss. Porter finished the day with 3 for 45 from 21 overs.

Otherwise, it was an exasperating day for Essex, who still need a smattering of points to be certain of playing Division One cricket next season.

Thomas lost his more experienced opening partner, Archie Vaughan, early on when the 19-year-old mistimed a drive off Porter and edged to third slip.

The loss did not deter Thomas. He had got off the mark to his first ball faced, turning Bracewell off his hip for two, and then twice drove the New Zealander impressively straight for boundaries. It set the tone for his innings. An eighth four, hammered through the covers from Charlie Bennett's own first ball in first-class cricket, brought up Somerset's fifty, of which the dominant Thomas had contributed 41.

Bennett, who was Essex's top wicket-taker in the Metro Bank Cup, frequently strayed down legside to the left-hander, but when he bowled a straighter delivery, Thomas pulled it effortlessly for six. Thomas's half-century came from just 51 balls when he turned a ninth boundary down to third man. However, he was given a life on 55 when dropped at first slip by Dean Elgar off Noah Thain.

The let-off seemed to inhibit Thomas and his rate of scoring dipped noticeably once he had passed that milestone, though he still made nearly two-thirds of the first hundred in the stand with Lammonby. The pair had been together for 34 overs when Porter's pace beat the outside of Thomas's bat and thudded into his off-stump.

Lammonby scratched around for 129 balls in all in making 47 with just three fours before he was lbw to one from Bennett that looked as if it might have missed leg-stump.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore lasted just eight balls before he tried to charge Bracewell and ended up nicking to substitute wicketkeeper Simon Fernandes, fielding post-lunch in place of Michael Pepper, who required treatment to an injured thumb.

Rew and Goldsworthy picked up Thomas's good work, piecing together a watchful partnership during which Rew reached his own half-century from 89 balls. His sixth boundary, through the covers off Matt Critchley, gave Somerset their first batting point. But with the new-ball just eight deliveries old Bracewell had Rew caught behind.

With the shine still on the ball, Porter had a third victim when Kasey Aldridge edged a misdrive low to Fernandes. But Goldsworthy, operating below the radar, reached a second half-century in three innings this season while putting on fifty for the seventh wicket with Craig Overton.