On the rain-interrupted first day of the LV= County Championship encounter with Hampshire at Taunton, young guns James Rew and Kasey Aldridge batted Somerset out of a significant hole made by Hampshire seamer Kyle Abbott.
After winning the toss on what appeared to be a fine batting pitch, the hosts collapsed to 80 for 5 as the seasoned Abbott, who has a successful record against the Cybermen, collected 4 for 10 from seven overs and a run-out.
Rew and Aldridge, who shared the sixth wicket and had a combined age of just 41, then showed outstanding maturity by putting together an unbroken 116-run stand in 26 overs until the weather had the last say and Somerset was reduced to 196 for 5.
Abbott had a final score of 4 for 20 for the day. Despite the fact that 39 overs total—including 19 at the end of the day—were dropped, the play nonetheless had advantages for both teams.
In preparation for Saturday’s Vitality Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston, Somerset rested Craig Overton, Lewis Gregory, Matt Henry, Ben Green, and Tom Kohler-Cadmore. As one of two specialized spinners—the other being Shoaib Bashir—Dom Bess returned to their team at the beginning of a brief loan from Yorkshire.
It came as no surprise that home captain Tom Abell chose to use the pitch first despite its appearance of being dry. In the seventh over, Tom Lammonby and Sean Dickson raised the score to 26 before Abbott, who had taken Keith Barker’s place at the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion End, made his first contribution.
At the age of 15, Lammonby drove at a ball of good length and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Ben Brown. Abell got a leading edge on Abbott and was soon caught and bowled for five runs, bringing the score to 36 for 2.
Dickson hit with a sweet straight shot after five runs had been made, only to see Abbott divert the ball onto the stumps at the bowler’s end with George Bartlett out of position backing up. Bartlett’s dejected departure for a duck brought the score to 41 for 3, and Abbott then trapped Dickson LBW for 21 by playing an across a full delivery.
It took Andy Umeed 19 balls to get off the mark before recording a four to third man in his maiden Championship match of the year.
The 19-year-old Rew appeared more stable than some of the players higher in the order, which was not the first time, and the duo gradually started to repair the early harm. When Hampshire added spin at 50 for 4, Liam Dawson came from the River End, and his first pitch to Rew spun sharply from outside of the off-stump position.
At 12.55 p.m., it began to rain, and Somerset was 74 for 4 when the umpires called for an early lunch. Rew and Umeed had scored 33 runs for the fifth wicket. After the break, the game was briefly resumed before further continuous rain forced the thick coverings to be pulled over everyone. Before the 3.30pm resumption, 20 overs were lost.
By the time tea was served at 4.50 p.m., Somerset had added 91 runs without Umeed, who had to be helped off the field after foolishly drawing an Abbott short ball straight to Felix Organ at midwicket and scoring 16 runs.
On a faultless surface, Rew and 22-year-old Aldridge then batted well, with the former looking especially strong off his legs as he advanced to a 105-ball fifty that included seven fours.
Rew once more showed off his enormous potential in red-ball cricket, and Aldridge contributed significantly to a partnership that was worth 85 by tea. Rew already has four Championship hundreds to his credit this season.
Aldridge reached an appealing half-century with four overthrows in the last session after facing 73 balls, taking the partnership past 100 with a top-edged pull for his sixth boundary.
Rew faced 142 balls when the rain started up again at 5.45 p.m., accumulating gradually with little alarms. Soon after, the covers were lifted once more, but because of the lingering precipitation and the shadows created by the floodlights, umpires Ben Peverell and James Middlebrook decided to call off the game for the day.
Somerset 196 for 5 (Rew 77*, Aldridge 55*, Abbott 4-20) vs Hampshire