'This was a tough start' says Shine after Glamorgan game ends in a draw

Somerset's three-day friendly against Glamorgan at the County Ground in Taunton ended in a draw, after some very entertaining cricket from both sides in bright sunshine was enjoyed by a good sized crowd.

Resuming on their overnight total of 172 for 3 the visitors took the score onto 383 for 9 before declaring, with Darren Thomas making 100 and David Hemp 70. The pick of the Somerset bowlers was Keith Dutch who ended with the impressive figures of 17 overs, 4 maidens, 3 wickets for 58 runs.

Chasing a total of 385, by the time that the players left the field with eight overs remaining, Somerset had reached 260 for 4, with Piran Holloway unbeaten on 78.

Earlier Matt Wood had scored 66 an impressive, Rob Turner 43, Aaron Laraman a quickfire 32 and James Bryant 30, which included two enormous sixes off Robert Croft, one of which landed in the St James Street Car Park.

After the close of play Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was a tough start for us against first class opponents and our bowlers have been made to work hard out there. They met the challenge I set them in the second innings, and there were good spells last night from Keith Dutch and Michael Parsons. Today everyone has bowled well. It was a very flat wicket and the batters dominated with the short boundary and 1300 runs were scored in three days."

Looking ahead to Monday's match at the Hampshire Rosebowl he said: "There is still a bit of work to do, but this performance is going to make selection difficult for the next game, and there will be keen competition for places ,especially with Ian Blackwell coming into the reckoning."

Somerset start their first class season next Saturday when they entertain Loughborough University at Taunton in a 3 day match, and the season gets underway in earnest on Good Friday when they travel to Bristol for their championship opener against the `old enemy' Gloucestershire.