Surrey will be the happier of the two sides after Day One
of the LVCC Division One match against Somerset at Taunton, thanks largely to a
brilliant hundred from Kevin Pietersen, and a good opening spell from Jon Lewis and Stuart Meaker.
On a bright sunny morning in Taunton, Gareth Batty won
the toss and elected to bat on what is historically one of the best tracks to
bat on in the county circuit. There were a few changes from the win over
Middlesex, with Rory Hamilton-Brown and Tim Linley dropped, Jade Dernbach away
with England, and Steve Davies unwell. That meant a first Championship game of
the summer for Gary Wilson, as well as Jon Lewis, leading wicket taker Stuart
Meaker and Kevin Pietersen coming in.
Ansari and Burns once again opened but the former
continued with his run of low scores in this format when Kirby trapped him in
front for 3. Even though he played that match saving innings against
Warwickshire, I’m not totally convinced Zaf is an opener, and will eventually
bat at 5 or 6 in the order.
It was tough for the batsman early on, as Harinath and
Burns were batting together for the first time in the First team since their
record partnership nearly 2 weeks ago. However, they couldn’t repeat that
today, as after a couple of wayward overs, on-loan Saj Mahmood bowled Burns for
23 and after taking us towards lunch with KP, Harinath was undone by Dockrell
for 21, as the hosts would have been the happier of the teams with us 84-3 at
the break.
Pietersen started positively after the break, and
alongside de Bruyn, began to take Surrey up towards a decent score, laying a
platform for the lower order. However, in the space of 6 balls, Kirby picked up
two wickets, first getting de Bruyn caught behind for 34, ending the 91 run
partnership, and then having Roy without scoring in similar fashion, and the
hosts were back in the box seat.
However, with KP still at the crease, we still had a
chance of posting a reasonable score. He was batting at his fluent best, and
went to a sublime hundred with a boundary off Thomas, his second consecutive
hundred in the Championship, and he really is showing what England are missing.
He and Wilson took us to tea 5 down, closing in on a 2nd batting
point.
That point was swiftly brought up after the interval, but
KP quickly began to lose partners at the other end. Wilson was stumped for 27,
before Batty, Meaker and Lewis fell in the space of a few overs. He brought up
his 150 with a six off Dockrell, which had come off just 152 balls. The last
wicket pair of KP and Kartik managed to take us to a 3rd batting
point, when the Indian spinner hit Dockrell for a 6 and a 4 off successive
deliveries. It was the first time we had got to 3 bonus batting points since
Guildford, where KP was also playing.
After another maximum from Kartik, Pietersen’s
outstanding innings was finally ended when he edged behind on 163 to give
Mahmood his 4th wicket. Surrey all out for 317, a score we would
have got nowhere near if it wasnt't for KP.
The hosts had 14 overs to bat out this evening, and off
just the 4th delivery, Lewis had Suppiah caught behind. Meaker then
had Trescothick when he top edged a pull up in the air, and Meaker took the
catch off his own bowling. Somerset finished the day on 42-2, with Jones and Hildreth at the crease.
So a great opening day for us then, after winning the
toss and batting first, Batty will be happy that we have got over 300, but it
is disappointing that none of the other batsman could make a sizeable
contribution. KP was once again quite brilliant for us, taking his seasons
average in the LVCC to 159, at a strike rate of just under 100. His innings
today contained 3 maximums and 20 fours, and he has now scored 60 more runs than
de Bruyn in this competition, in a remarkable 19 less innings.
Tomorrow we will be looking to pick up some early wickets
and continue from where we left off tonight, on a pitch that did give some
assistance to the quicker bowlers today, and try and gain a first innings lead.
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