Rain forces a draw at Taunton
The County Championship game between Somerset and Essex petered out to a draw as rain restricted play to just 50 overs on the final day
30-Apr-2010
The County Championship game between Somerset and Essex petered out to a draw as rain restricted play to just 50 overs on the final day at the County Ground in Taunton.
After losing the whole of the previous day to the weather, play got under way on time on day four, with Essex resuming on 252 for 5 in response to the hosts' first innings total of 387.
Somerset got an early breakthrough when left-arm seamer Charl Willoughby accounted for Ryan Ten Doeschate leg before with the ninth delivery of the session with a ball that swung late.
Six overs later, with the total on 271, Pete Trego trapped James Foster in front of his stumps, but opening bowler David Masters, batting at No. 9, then produced an impressive display of clean hitting. Supported by Tim Phillips, he quickly moved the total on to 321 before the slow left-arm spinner was caught by Nick Compton off Willoughby for 22.
Aided by Chris Wright, Masters added a further 23 runs before he was caught at mid on by Zander de Bruyn to give Damien Wright his second wicket of the innings, but not before he had brought up his own half century. Masters' 50 came off just 38 balls and included 11 fours.
Legspinner Michael Munday returned to the attack at the River End and with the first ball of his fifth over he wrapped up the innings when he had Maurice Chambers leg before, by which time the Essex total had moved onto 353. Munday, playing his first Championship match for Somerset since last June, ended with four for 105 from his 30.1 overs, while there were two wickets apiece for Willoughby and Wright.
In the five overs before lunch the hosts had moved on to 17 without loss, and after the break 10 overs of play were possible before the rain started to fall steadily and the players left the field at 2.30pm, by which time Somerset had moved onto 69 without further loss.
The players took an early tea and eventually returned at 4.15pm by which time a further 24 overs had been lost. In the final session of play Somerset moved onto 100 before declaring with Marcus Trescothick ending unbeaten on 42 and Suppiah 47 not out. Both teams took 10 points from the match.
