Scarborough gives Somerset a seaside tonic
Rainer Maria Rilke had an observation about the calming effect of the sea, but Somerset would have probably just said they were finally executing their skills. Whatever, it went remarkably well
Paul Edwards at North Marine Road
03-Jul-2017
"The sea…imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused," said Rainer Maria Rilke, so perhaps Somerset's cricketers would have been well advised to take a leaf from the poet's notebook and spent a few minutes on the first morning of this match contemplating the glory of Scarborough's North Bay. The gentle ruffles of the waves might have proved an effective antidote to the current turbulence in the West Country.
Infinitely more likely, of course, their determined showing in the opening three sessions of this match reflected merely their ingrained self-belief that their season will turn for the better if they stick close to the disciplines that made them professional cricketers in the first place.
That fidelity to technique was first exhibited by Adam Hose, whose 158-minutes 62 held his team's innings together at a time when it might have disintegrated completely; Somerset's spirit was later in evidence when Craig Overton and Tim Groenewald added 61 for their side's last wicket in half an hour's rather riotous cricket which included Groenewald hitting three sixes off an Adil Rashid over which yielded 26 runs.
Having discomfited Yorkshire's players and quietened the North Marine Road crowd, Overton and Groenewald then did even more harm by dismissing both Yorkshire openers and Peter Handscomb with only 21 runs on the board. All three batsmen were caught in the slips when failing to counter the pace and bounce which is one of the most distinctive characteristics of cricket at Scarborough.
Those wickets lost, there was no mistaking the appreciation which the home spectators showed for 18-year-old Harry Brook and the Yorkshire debutant Tom Kohler-Cadmore, whose resilience during the last eight overs of the day prevented further inroads being made.
Somerset's rather unexpected successes will have come as a great encouragement to their captain and Taunton loyalist, Tom Abell, who dropped himself from the side for this game - who knows after what conversations - in order to regain some batting form in the second team.
But by the same token the series of small fightbacks staged by the visitors rather rained on the parade of most of the 4,021 spectators, the majority of whom had probably thought that their favourites were in charge of the game.
And they had good reason for such a belief. Yorkshire's dominance in the morning session was such that they could bear the withdrawal of Ryan Sidebottom with seeming equanimity. The shaggy-locked spearhead pulled up with a back muscle injury in the middle of his fifth over and may not be fit to take any further part in the match.
Yorkshire, though, did very nicely without him. Marcus Trescothick played all too firmly at a ball from Bresnan which was pushed across him and edged a catch to Handscomb at first slip. Deprived of a batsman whose years exceeded their own combined ages, Eddie Byrom and Tim Rouse battled bravely for six overs until Rouse contrived to edge Liam Plunkett's wide yorker to Bresnan at slip, and Byrom was bowled by the same bowler's fine inswinger at which he played all too loosely.
Somerset found brief comfort in the cover driving of James Hildreth but that was ended ten minutes before lunch when he received a ball from Bresnan which straightened and bounced wickedly. Hodd completed the catch.
Somerset munched their food on 71 for four and the only grievance the home spectators could have had was that more wickets should have been taken on a morning when the ball was nipping around and swinging.
No one had bowled better than Plunkett, who was playing his first Championship match of the season, a result of calf trouble and England one-day calls. He had Steve Davies lbw and later, with the first ball after tea, bowled Lewis Gregory round his legs.
Somerset's effort depended primarily on Hose, whose height had enabled him to negate the bounce extracted by the Yorkshire attack. Time and again in the warm afternoon, Hose cover drove Bresnan's seamers, at one stage taking four fours off a Coad over. By now the sun had emerged from behind bright cloud and the cinder toffee ice-cream was slipping down nicely. The Yorkshire crowd applauded Hose's strokes and one felt that Scarborough's biannual parade was finally taking place.
It took Rashid's googly to end Hose's innings but by then the score had mounted to 180 and Gregory could imagine that the Somerset attack he had found himself skippering in Abell's absence could have something at which to bowl.
Overton was dropped by Bresnan off Plunkett with the score on 215 but few thought it would affect the price of fish. Then Overton and Groenewald's attack on Rashid demolished such a belief and took the game out of Yorkshire's grip.
Moreover, as so often happens, a last-wicket stand helped to make early breakthroughs in the following innings. Lyth and Lees have both batted often enough at Scarborough to know that the pace and bounce on this pitch is almost Australian in character; yet both failed to cover Overton's movement and the home hopes now lie in the hands of two batsmen who have played four first-class innings for the White Rose.
Paul Edwards is a freelance cricket writer. He has written for the Times, ESPNcricinfo, Wisden, Southport Visiter and other publications