An eye-catching century from the flashing blade of Brendan Taylor was the highlight as Nottinghamshire dominated the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against Somerset at Taunton.
Taylor scored 152 out of a close of play score of 391 for six, scoring his runs from exactly 200 balls faced, which included one huge six and 20 fours..
The former Zimbabwe captain was at the very peak of his powers in a majestic display of strokeplay and he received excellent support from Michael Lumb, who scored 73 in a third wicket partnership of 157.
Taylor’s hundred was the 26th of his first class career and was the highest of his four made for Notts this season. During the course of it he also went past 7,000 first class runs.
Alfonso Thomas was the pick of the Somerset bowlers, taking four wickets for 62. Whilst Abdur Rehman took the other two wickets to fall, it was at a personal cost of 129 from his 28 overs.
Brendan Taylor admitted he’d enjoyed his return to form, after a series of low scores. “It’s been a dry two or three weeks,” he said afterwards. “So it was nice to spend some time in the middle and go on and convert it into a big score and lay the platform for the side.
Despite Notts having not played last week, Taylor confirmed he’d had no time off as he looked to work on his technique.
“I haven’t had any time off really. I’ve been working on a lot of things and trying to adjust a few technical issues with my feet. With the ball moving around like it does at Trent Bridge and up at Durham it’s been really difficult to bat recently but fortunately the Taunton wicket was a nice one to bat on today.”
It was also a successful day for Riki Wessels, skippering Notts for the first time. He won the toss and elected to bat, saw his side turn in one of their most complete days of the season and reached stumps with an unbeaten 59 to his name.
Alex Hales, James Taylor and Harry Gurney were absent from the Nottinghamshire side that defeated Sussex in their last championship match, a fortnight ago.
Replacing them were Australia’s Ben Hilfenhaus, the club’s latest overseas player, who had previously made two T20 Blast appearances for the Outlaws, plus Michael Lumb and Matthew Carter.
Lumb’s return to action followed a lengthy period of recuperation after arm surgery and 19-year old Carter, younger brother of fast bowler Andy Carter, was included for his first team debut.
The opening half an hour produced 32 runs, all of them coming in boundaries, a sequence that was broken by a poor throw from Tom Cooper which gifted an overthrow.
Mullaney, in particular, timed the ball impressively at the start of the day, repeatedly finding the extra cover drive with a succession of crisp drives.
A lofted boundary by Taylor, off Peter Trego, brought the 50 stand up after 13.5 overs.
The opening partnership was eventually broken in the 21st over when Abdur Rehman got one to bite and turn and clip Mullaney’s off bail, ending a very useful knock of 42.
Taylor found a novel way of dealing with Trego, lifting three shortish deliveries in the same over, up and over the ‘keeper’s head for boundaries.
The 29-year old right-hander reached his 50 from 80 deliveries, with nine fours but then lost his second partner as Greg Smith was bowled by Alfonso Thomas for 11.
There didn’t appear to be any ring-rust for Michael Lumb, who began in confident mode after his long lay-off to help Notts to 147 for two at lunch.
The same healthy rate of progress carried on during the early afternoon, with both batsmen peppering the boundary boards with great regularity. Tim Groenewald was clattered into the base of the Somerset Stand to take Taylor into the nineties.
Another boundary, his 16th, off the same bowler, took Taylor to his fourth century for the county – coming from just 128 balls. He celebrated by lifting Groenewald for the first six of the match high into the scaffolding and building work at the Old Pavilion end of the ground.
Lumb reached his 50 from 67 balls faced, having hit nine fours of his own as the third wicket partnership advanced into three figures.
It had been stretched to 157 when Somerset broke through, just before tea. Rehman, in his 15th over, found the outside edge of Lumb’s bat and Jim Allenby clung on to a sharp catch at first slip.
Thomas dragged Somerset back into the contest with two big strikes from consecutive deliveries. Taylor had just reached his 150, from 199 balls with 20 fours and a six but he then edged his next ball to slip, where Marcus Trescothick took a superb catch, low down in his left hand.
Samit Patel was then struck on the pads and sent on his way by umpire Mark Benson. Will Gidman survived against the hat-trick ball and settled in for a stand of 70 with Wessels.
The second new ball brought Somerset their sixth wicket, as Gidman edged Thomas to Trescothick for 20 but it did also enable Wessels to advance to his own 50 (81 balls 6x4 1x6).
Luke Wood and the stand-in skipper saw the side through the final half an hour of the day and will resume on the second morning with only nine runs needed for maximum batting points.
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