Sussex 152 (46.2 overs) and 127-4 (37 overs)
Somerset 338 (105.1 overs)
Sussex trail Somerset by 59 runs
Craig Overton played the starring role as Somerset moved into a strong position on the second day of their Rothesay County Championship Division One match with Sussex at the Cooper Associates Ground, in Taunton.
Having extended their first innings score to 338 all out – Archie Vaughan last man out for 80 and Nathan McAndrew claiming four for 71 – the hosts skittled their opponents for 152.
Overton claimed three for 30 and three fine slip catches to help establish a lead of 186. Daniel Hughes top-scored with 38 while Migael Pretorius took three for 24.
Sussex were made to follow on and reached 127-4 by stumps, with openers Tom Haines and Daniel Hughes out for 50 and 40 respectively. They trailed by 59 runs.
The day began with Somerset adding just 21 runs to their overnight score for the loss of four wickets. Three of them fell to McAndrew who began by having Overton brilliantly caught off an inside edge by wicketkeeper John Simpson for 28.
Pretorius edged through to Simpson off Ollie Robinson and it was 333-9 when Matt Henry skyed a catch to mid-off, Robinson this time the catcher, to give McAndrew his third wicket of the innings.
The fourth ended Vaughan’s career-best knock as he went on the attack and perished to another catch at mid-off. The 19-year-old had faced 134 balls and hit 15 fours to bolster what looked a good total given the nature of the pitch.
Sussex made a decent enough start in reply, Hughes and Haines taking the total to 37 in the tenth over before the latter pushed forward defensively to Overton and nicked a catch to wicketkeeper James Rew.
Haines had moved fluently to 24, with four fours. But his departure signalled a turning point. The next over saw Tom Clark fall lbw to Henry, who had switched to the River End, and at lunch the scoreboard read 68-2.
It was 75-3 when Tom Alsop edged Pretorius into the bucket hands of Overton at second slip and 80-4 in the following over. This time Josh Davey profited from Overton’s prowess as a slip fielder to dismiss James Coles for a duck.
With just 17 runs added, Simpson was bowled shouldering arms to Overton who soon followed up with a similar delivery from around the wicket that brought the demise of Hughes, also playing no shot.
Overton claimed his third catch when Fynn Hudson-Prentice edged a back-foot defensive shot off Pretorius before Jack Leach weighed in with the wickets of McAndrew and Robinson.
The first was to a spooning a catch to cover and Robinson tried to hit a second six but only edged to Lewis Gregory at slip.
Pretorius ended the innings by bowling last man James Hayes. Sussex had been shot out in 46.2 overs. Expecting the pitch to become flatter as the match progressed, Gregory took the understandable decision to enforce the follow-on.
Tea was taken before the Sussex second innings began. Both Hughes and Haines played positively, raising a half-century stand off just 57 balls in warm late afternoon sunshine.
Overton’s successful afternoon almost got better with the total on 82 as Haines, on 43, edged a forcing shot only for Tom Lammonby to spill a sharp chance above his head at second slip. The opener profited to reach an attractive fifty off 72 balls.
Hughes was equally impressive, bringing up the century stand with a swept four off Leach before falling in the same over, caught behind off bat and pad.
Haines quickly followed, leg before to Pretorius, and suddenly Sussex were 100-2, still 86 behind.
Jack Carson, promoted in the order, fell to Henry with 11 runs added. And when Leach had Clark caught behind attempting an injudicious slog-sweep it was clearly Somerset’s day.
Craig Overton said: “I used to keep wicket as a young boy which stands me in good stead for fielding in the slips.
“I know I have decent hands and I have worked hard on posture positions so I can keep low, even though I am a tall guy.
“I love fielding at second slip. I feel like a slip fielder has to want the ball to come to him, rather than not expecting it, and it’s all about maintaining concentration.
“It was another good day for us. The pitches here tend to become easier to bat on as games progress which is why we enforced the follow on – and to have them four down going into tomorrow is a very good position.
“The job is not done yet and we will need to bowl well again. But, having beaten Essex in our last match, we are hopefully going to build some momentum.”
Sussex seamer Nathan McAndrew said: “It was a challenging day. We started well and bowled Somerset out quite quickly which was all we could hope for given the position they built on day one.
“They bowled pretty well and we played at a few balls we didn’t need to, which led to us losing wickets quite quickly.
“The pitch has got better to bat on and we saw Tom Haines and Daniel Hughes play really well in our second innings.
“They showed that if you can get in, there are runs to be made and all we can focus on now is trying to get a lead.
“There is a lot of the game still ahead of us and we need to perform well tomorrow.”
