Somerset 335-5 (96 overs)
Sussex yet to bat
Sussex (1 point) trail Somerset (2 points) by 335 runs
Tom Abell continued in the form of his life as Somerset ran up 335-5 on the opening day of the Rothesay County Championship Division One match with Sussex at the Cooper Associates County Ground, in Taunton.
The 32-year-old model of consistency, who went into the game averaging over 70 in nine innings this season, was 74 not out at stumps, off 136 balls, with eight fours and a six.
James Rew celebrated his England test squad call up with 86 while Tom Lammonby contributed 73.
Abell has now hit more than 25 in his last 14 Championship innings stretching back to last summer.
There were two wickets for Tom Haines while Sussex skipper Ollie Robinson bowled well in short spells to take 1-28 from 13 overs.
Somerset’s new overseas recruit Jordan Hermann, signed for three Championship games, was selected to open the batting with Josh Thomas, allowing Rew to drop back down to number four.
The 25-year-old South African left-hander acquitted himself well against the new ball and scored his first runs for the county with two to fine leg off Robinson’s opening over of the match.
But Somerset’s attempts to solve top order batting problems suffered another setback when Thomas, on seven, fell leg before to a ball from Robinson angled into him from around the wicket.
Hermann followed with the total on 46, having contributed a solid 25, another LBW victim, this time for Haines, trying to pull a short of a length delivery.
That was as good as it got for Sussex in a morning session played out under sunny skies on an easy-paced pitch, which saw several edges fall short of the slip cordon.
Rew, who had been in prime form before two unsuccessful games as an opener, began scratchily but gradually rediscovered his touch as he and Lammonby took the score to 107-2 at lunch.
A swept six by Rew off Jack Carson in the final over before the interval had brought the hundred up.
Two balls later, the Somerset wicketkeeper was given a life when dropped by James Coles at mid-wicket. He was unbeaten on 26 at the interval, with Lammonby having progressed fluently to 44.
Lammonby moved to his second half-century of the season at the start of the afternoon session with his eighth boundary, dispatched through backward point off Tom Clark.
Rew then had another escape with his score on 37, Coles again the culprit, spilling a straightforward chance at first slip off Henry Crocombe.
Batting was looking comfortable as Rew lofted off-spinner Carson for six over long-off, shortly after reaching his fifty off 94 balls.
But just when it seemed that both Somerset men were on course for centuries, they undid their good work with surprising errors.
First Lammonby gave Carson the charge and presented wicketkeeper John Simpson the simplest of stumpings to make it 170-3.
Then, after Abell had helped add 44 for the fourth wicket, Rew, who had accelerated impressively in the afternoon sunshine, played an ugly shot off left-arm spinner Coles and skyed a catch to cover.
By tea, Somerset had progressed to 238-4, with Abell unbeaten on 23. The final session began with Archie Vaughan clipping a Carson full-toss through the covers for a boundary that brought up 250 and a first Somerset batting point.
An Abell six over long-on off Carson brought up another fifty stand.
Abell then went to his sixth Championship half-century in ten innings this summer – two of them converted into hundreds – off 93 balls, never looking in the slightest bother.
Sussex took the second new ball at 285-4 and it accounted for Vaughan, caught behind driving a wide swinging ball from Clark for 29. But Craig Overton played well to help Abell add 38 before the close.
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “It’s a good pitch and Somerset have batted well. We dropped some chances again, which doesn’t help, and we didn’t quite get it right with the new ball this morning.
“I didn’t think we were properly on it throughout the whole day. We were a bit scruffy in the field but it is the sixth game on the bounce, with the last four having little break in between them, and we are asking the same players to perform day in, day out.
“It’s not lack of effort, care or trying. There’s a few tired bodies and the break next week will do the players good. We have a few fresh ones to come into our T20 side and will be able to give our bowlers some rest.
“We set ourselves high standards and are delighted with the start we have made to the season. But today was a bit rough around the edges.”
