'We lost some of the momentum at the end' says Kevin Shine

Somerset enjoyed some success on the opening day of their championship match against Durham at Taunton thanks to a fine bowling display by Richard Johnson, and a welcome return to form by Marcus Trescothick. But then lost the initiative as the visitors grabbed quick wickets.

By the close the Cidermen had scored 126 for 5 wickets in reply to Durham's first innings total of 185.

After winning the toss the visitors chose to bat first and by lunchtime had slipped to 107 for 5 wickets, with Johnson taking 4 for 39 from his 10 overs, all of which were bowled from the Old Pavilion End.

The first wicket to fall was Michael Gough who played and missed several times before with the score on 24 he edged the ball to wicket keeper Rob Turner. Johnson then accounted for Nicky Peng LBW, before relying on Turner to take catches to account for last two victims.

Five overs after the break it was Johnson who struck again for the Cidermen when he bowled Andrew Pratt for 23 as the left hander offered no stroke.

Bowling from the River End Aaron Laraman sent down several deliveries outside the off stump before Nick Philips edged one to Trescothick who was fielding at first slip.

Nixon McLean returned at the Old Pavilion End as the visitors brough up the 150, and was unlucky to see Trescothick put down Jon Lewis when the batsman was on 65.

Seven overs later Turner made amends when he dived low to his right to get his glove underneath a hard chance off Simon Francis after the Durham skipper had made 78.

Francis claimed the last two wickets to fall when Neil Killeen spooned a simple catch to Laraman at mid off, and then in the same over Steve Harmison gave James Bryant a straightforward catch at point and Durham were all out for 185.

Johnson was the pick of the Somerset bowlers and ended with the impressive figures of 16 overs, 1 maiden 5 wickets for 64.

When the Somerset reply started after an early tea, Trescothick quickly got into his stride and dispatched Indian test bowler Javagal Srinath for consecutive boundaries, and then a couple of overs later the England man smashed a short delivery from the same bowler to mid wicket.

Harmison changed to the Old Pavilion End to replace Srinath, but he was dealt with in the same harsh way by Trescothick. The left hander was now in his stride and hit a trio of boundaries off the next over from Killeen before bringing up his half century off Harmison.

Trescothick moved onto 60 before he hit a long hop from Vince Wells to Philips just in front of the square leg umpire.

With the departure of Trescothick the Somerset scoring rate slowed down and just after the 100 came up two wickets tumbled in quick succession. Bowler was caught at fine leg by Srinath off Killeen for 25, and shortly afterwards Jamie Cox was LBW off Srinath without scoring.

Burns and Bryant survived several torrid overs from Srinath, but eventually the return of Wells at the River End brought two more wickets as Burns was dismissed LBW followed next ball by night watchman Francis, to promise another enthralling day at the County Ground tomorrow.

After the close of play Kevin Shine told me: "It's certainly been a very interesting day's play with that number of wickets falling here and we unfortunately we lost some of the momentum there at the end."

He continued: "Our bowling attack was first class, Richard Johnson was excellent, and Nixon McLean bowled without much luck, but now we have to produce a batting perfomance to match it. Durham bowled a different line and length and to be fair it was a good performance by them at the end."

Looking forward to tomorrow he said: "What we need in the morning is for our middle order to graft and get a lead of 50 or 60 runs, which we can achiev with the depth of batting that we have in the team."

The five wicket hero Richard Johnson told me: "After all the hard work that I have done in the winter of course I was pleased with five wickets today, but I have bowled better and not been rewarded so well. I'm still just short of my best, and there is still more to come."