Captain Haseeb Hameed’s third century of the season helped title-chasing Nottinghamshire build a solid foundation in reply to Somerset’s 438 on day two of their County Championship clash at Trent Bridge.
Hameed, who struck 15 fours and two sixes, also passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season with the same shot that completed his hundred. He had earlier shared a stand of 101 for the second wicket with Freddie McCann (48).
At 189-2, though, Nottinghamshire, who began this round one point behind Division One leaders and defending champions Surrey, still have much work to do, trailing by 249 runs even after third-placed Somerset lost their last seven wickets for 100, Mohammad Abbas (3-60) and Dillon Pennington (3-71) sharing the bowling honours for the home side.
Somerset’s 438 all out – while a total not to be sniffed at after being asked to bat first – perversely still felt like fewer than they probably should have got on a pitch with little in it for the bowling side, given that they had been 338-3 before Tom Abell’s demise shortly before Tuesday’s close.
Abbas excepted, Notts had not been at their best with the ball on the opening day. They looked better for a night’s reflection, yet most of the damage suffered by Somerset was to some degree self-inflicted.
Of the four wickets to fall in adding 58 before lunch, nightwatchman Jack Leach cut the first ball of the day straight to backward point, after which James Rew fell into a trap set on the leg side as his impressive 166 ended with him athletically caught behind pulling.
Tom Banton, chasing a wide one, and Archie Vaughan, nibbling outside off stump, gave Joe Clarke two much easier catches in his latest tour of duty keeping wicket, this time because Kyle Verreynne is back home in South Africa for an awards ceremony. Migael Pretorius popped back a tame return catch for Calvin Harrison soon after lunch.
Craig Overton’s 31 not out was the third highest score in an innings dominated by Rew’s 313-run fourth-wicket stand with Abell (156). Jake Ball, the former Notts quick, made 24 against his old mates before chipping back a catch to Liam Patterson-White after 41 were added for the last wicket.
Opening a Notts innings for the 100th time together, Haseeb and Ben Slater were quickly parted, Slater falling to the eighth ball of the innings, shouldering arms to a ball from Craig Overton that clipped his off stump.
Yet it took another 28 overs for the Somerset attack to make a second incision. McCann was looking to match Hameed, who had just completed an 87-ball half-century, when Ball offered him a delivery wide of off stump. It was a boundary for the taking to the short side of the square but he flashed at the ball and it took the edge, Rew having no problem taking the catch.
If this represented a potential opening for Somerset, though, it was not one that offered any more than a glimpse of light, as Hameed and Clarke negotiated a safe passage through the 25 overs that remained.
Hameed survived a chance on 91, albeit a difficult one, when he drove a ball back hard at Pretorius, who instinctively flung out a hand but could only prevent runs.
The Notts skipper celebrated his reprieve by lofting Vaughan’s off spin down the ground, not cleanly but with enough power to beat the fielder and the boundary for his second six, then patiently waiting on 99 to drive the same bowler to the long-on boundary for his 15th four and his 18th first-class century.
