By Richard Latham
Result: Surrey 368 & 29-0 beat Somerset 170 & 226 by ten wickets
Jordan Clark claimed four wickets as Surrey strengthened their position at the top of the First Division table with a comprehensive LV= Insurance County Championship victory over Somerset inside three days at Taunton last weekend.
The hosts began their second innings at the start of play, trailing by 198 runs, and were bowled out for 226, Clark taking four for 36 to help set up a ten-wicket victory.
James Rew contributed 55, becoming the first player in Division One to pass 1,000 runs for the season at the age of 19, while Craig Overton smacked five sixes in a defiant 70 not out. But Surrey were left to make only 29 and reached their target in 8.3 overs.
Somerset took only three points from the match after two brittle batting efforts, while their opponents claimed 22 to maintain a healthy lead over nearest challengers Essex.
With only four balls bowled, the morning session was interrupted by rain. When play resumed at 12.10pm, any hope Somerset had getting back into the game disappeared with some abject top order batting.
Sean Dickson had already survived a chance to third slip when in the same Clark over, the fourth of the innings, he edged to first slip where Dom Sibley made no mistake.
Four overs later Tom Lammonby swished at a wide delivery from Clark, which he might have left and Will Jacks held a low two-handed catch. It was 23 for three when George Bartlett shouldered arms to a Clark delivery that crashed into his pads on off stump and fell lbw.
Clark finished his opening spell with figures of three for fifteen from six overs.
But Tom Abell put a blameless pitch in perspective with sound shot selection and by lunch, which was taken at 46 for four, the Somerset skipper had struck four boundaries in moving to 27.
Rew, who had taken 32 balls to get off the mark in the first innings, again displayed a patience lacking in more experienced team-mates and had yet to open his account, having faced ten deliveries.
The afternoon session saw Rew and Abell progress their partnership to 64 with few alarms, the prolific teenager reaching a four-figure run tally for the summer when moving to 21 with a single to cover off Worrall.
But Clark returned at the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion End to pin Abell leg before for 46 with a yorker and at 92 for five Somerset still required 106 to make Surrey bat again.
Kasey Aldridge edged a short wide ball from Tom Lawes to third slip where Jacks took an excellent diving catch as his side continued to gift wickets with injudicious strokes.
An exception was Rew, content to accumulate quietly without resorting to big shots until, with his score on 31, he effortless lifted a ball from Lawes over deep backward square for six.
Ben Green was caught behind looking to drive a full-length delivery from Jamie Overton to make it 130 for seven before Rew went to 50 for the seventh time this season, off 96 balls, with four fours and a six.
The unflappable young wicketkeeper, who doesn’t turn 20 until January, had turned five of his previous half-centuries into hundreds, with a top score of 221 against Hampshire at Taunton.
At tea, Somerset were 139 for seven, still trailing by 59. They had added just six runs when Rew, perhaps feeling he was running out of partners, top-edged a pull shot off Gus Atkinson and skyed a catch to fine leg. He had faced 106 balls in another mature contribution.
The end looked nigh as Atkinson quickly followed up by sending back Matt Henry, lbw to a yorker. But Overton had other ideas, launching a savage attack with powerful pulls and drives that saw him take 20 off an Atkinson over and dominate a last wicket stand of 77 in 13 overs with Shoaib Bashir.
It merely prevented the inevitable and Surrey wrapped up victory at just before 6.15pm with openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley completing the job.
Surrey’s former Somerset all-rounder Jamie Overton said: “It’s always a bit strange coming back to play where your roots are, but it has been a great three days for the team.
“It’s another good win to keep us top of the table. We have a five-strong seam attack and Tom Kohler-Cadmore was saying the other day that all five would get into any strong county side.
“If one is having a bad day, the other four pick up the slack and try to make something happen. That is one of our strong points.
“We also pride ourselves on making big first innings runs and it has served us well again here. I think last season we got over 350 in every game.
“I feel a bit tired after playing three games on the bounce following no four-day cricket since September, but I am in a good place going into The Hundred and then trying to help Surrey win the title again.
“It was important to get a win going into the break from Championship cricket and we will come back strongly for the final games.”
