Abell's intervention leaves Yorkshire with a tough task

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Yorkshire 96 and 49 for 1 require a further 272 runs to beat Somerset 216 (Renshaw 112, Brooks 5-57) and 200 (Abell 82, Coad 4-61)
Scorecard

Tom Abell produced a captain's innings to guide Somerset into a strong position on the third day of the Specsavers County Championship match with Yorkshire at Taunton.

The 24-year-old skipper rescued his team from 24 for 4 in their second innings, making 82 off 137 balls, with 8 fours and a six, as they recovered to 200 all out. Ben Coad claimed 4 for 61 and Jack Brooks 3 for 44.

That set Yorkshire a testing target of 321 to win on a pitch still offering assistance to the seamers. By the close of a day interrupted three times by bad light, the visitors had reached 49 for 1, with Adam Lyth unbeaten on 25, and trailed by 271.

The day began with Somerset six without loss, leading by 126. They soon plunged into trouble as Coad and Brooks made good use of the new ball to pick up four cheap wickets between them.

Coad had Marcus Trescothick caught at second slip and George Bartlett taken by wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd, while Brooks bowled Matt Renshaw and James Hildreth, both driving.

With their lead only 144, Somerset needed a partnership. It was supplied by Abell and Steve Davies, who added 66 before Davies, on 33, edged Coad to first slip where Cheteshwar Pujara took the catch.

Lewis Gregory got off the mark with a six over midwicket off Brooks and followed up with a four off the next delivery before Matthew Waite had him lbw playing no shot for 14.

At lunch the scoreboard read 113 for six and Somerset had extended their advantage to 233. Craig Overton contributed a bright 18 before being bowled by a full, swinging delivery from Brooks to make it 129 for seven.

Abell stood firm, playing an innings of sound technique and good judgement to reach his half-century off 103 balls, with 6 fours. Dom Bess (14) shared an important stand of 42 before driving at Waite and edging a catch to second slip.

Yorkshire gave Abell two lives, Hodd dropping a touch chance off Coad when the Somerset captain was on 24 and Jack Leaning spilling a more straightforward catch at gully off Tim Bresnan with the batsman on 69.

Abell hit a rare six, clipping Waite over backward square as Somerset's lead passed the 300-mark. Josh Davey made a useful 11 before driving Bresnan to Gary Ballance and the innings ended when Abell was bowled by Coad, aiming a big shot.

Yorkshire were 13 without loss when bad light brought an early tea. On the resumption they had doubled that score when Harry Brook, on 15, edged a drive off Davey to Trescothick at second slip.

At 44 for one bad light intervened again and, although the players returned briefly while five more runs were added, the umpires soon took them off again. After 25 minutes of consultation, aided by a light meter, they abandoned play for the day.

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Ball's England form leaves Worcestershire bereft

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Nottinghamshire 300 for 9 dec (Taylor 50, Tongue 4-81) beat Worcestershire 110 (Clarke 42, Fletcher 5-27) and 149 (Fell 37, Ball 5-59) by an innings and 41 runs
Scorecard

It is only seven months these sides were promoted together from Division Two of the County Championship but the gulf in class between them was startling in a one-sided affair that was completed in just five sessions.

Worcestershire, who went up as Second Division champions, were routed twice in the equivalent of just two sessions by a high quality attack who made expert use of a slow seaming pitch.

Stuart Broad, playing his first match of the season, played his part, surviving a mid-pitch collision with Luke Fletcher along the way, but he was not Worcestershire's chief tormentor. Instead it was Jake Ball, another member of England's Ashes attack, who wrecked their second innings by taking his second five wicket haul of the season.

Worcestershire have now lost all three matches since they were promoted for the sixth time and with a trip to the Oval this week followed by the visit of reigning champions Essex, things are unlikely to get any easier.

Kevin Sharp, who was installed as head coach following the sacking of Steve Rhodes during the winter, had some difficult times during his time as Yorkshire's batting coach but preventing Worcestershire from being relegated after just a season in the top flight for the fifth time may yet prove to be his biggest challenge.

"We know that there are some really top sides in this division. Division One sides are more experienced and they have strength in depth but there lies the challenge. If we didn't know before we certainly do now about what is expected," Sharp said.

After a lengthy post-match team Sharp announced that five of his punch drunk top six - Travis Head is the exception - will play in a Second XI Trophy match against Warwickshire at New Road on Tuesday in an attempt to find form and confidence..

Brett D'Oliveira and George Rhodes have scraped together just 35 runs in 12 innings between them and Worcestershire's only half centuries have come from Ben Cox and Ed Barnard at seven and eight in the order.

"It hurts and it's not nice. Someone asked me the other day if I was enjoying myself. I said sometimes because it's not easy to enjoy yourself in such circumstances," Sharp said.

"I have been at this club for four years, I have seen these lads grow up and they are fine players but they have not performed as yet. But I have every confidence and belief they will come through and by September things will have turned round."

Jake Ball was too hot for Worcestershire Getty Images

Nottinghamshire have yet to play at Trent Bridge this season because of building work but they will return there to face Hampshire on Friday having won twice on the road.

"We started this little block of five matches thinking of it like a Test series of five. We are 2-1 up at the minute and everyone is excited at going back to Trent Bridge," Ball said.

Ball already 21 wickets this season and with a new National Selector in Ed Smith, he remains hopeful of reclaiming his England place after he was dropped for the two Tests in New Zealand.

"It's nice to have had this start having had the winter I had. It's something I wanted to do. Hopefully I can kick on again and see where we go from there," he said.

Ball was given the opportunity to pitch the ball up and attack here thanks to the early aggression of Tom Moores and Broad who accelerated Nottinghamshire towards their declaration. They pulled out after the last wicket pair of Luke Fletcher and Harry Gurney had scrambled the 12 runs they needed for a third batting point and then set about Worcestershire's feeble batting.

Daryl Mitchell, who has made only five of his 26 championship centuries in the First Division, was bowled by a full length ball for the second time in the match and only Tom Fell, who batted 28 overs for his 37, threatened to delay Nottinghamshire.

Fell looked distraught when he was bowled shouldering arms to Gurney and Worcestershire's version of Kwik Cricket meant it was all over long before a party of 150 schoolchildren arrived hoping to see some cricket before a presentation evening.

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