Dan Lawrence ton hits Somerset title hopes

Dan Lawrence hit his sixth Rothesay County Championship century of the season as Surrey dominated the opening day of the final Division One match with Somerset at the Cooper Associates Ground, Taunton.

The visitors ran up 327 for 4 after winning the toss, Lawrence top-scoring with an unbeaten 105 off 136 balls, with nine fours and four sixes. The innings maintained his record of going on to three figures every time he has made fifty in red-ball cricket this summer.

Dom Sibley contributed 72 off 188 deliveries and Ben Foakes 64 not out as Somerset saw their flickering hopes of a first ever Championship title all but snuffed out in front of nearly 3,000 expectant supporters.

The match began in bright sunshine and it soon looked a good toss to win as the pitch offered scant assistance to the Somerset seamers. In anticipation of boosting their hopes of maximum batting points to keep title ambitions alive, the hosts brought the boundary ropes in on both sides of the wicket.

Soon it was Surrey capitalising on the favourable batting conditions. As early as the eighth over, Somerset skipper Lewis Gregory turned to spin, introducing Jack Leach from the River End.

Rory Burns had no intention of letting the experienced left-armer settle into a line and length, slog-sweeping him for six in only his second over. And when Craig Overton began his second spell, switched to the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion End, Burns cleared the ropes again with a pull shot.

The Surrey opener looked in prime form. But, having reached 31 off 44 balls, he misjudged a sweep off Leach and top-edged a catch to Tom Abell at short fine-leg. The stand with Sibley had put 47 on the board with few alarms.

Ryan Patel contributed 16 in helping advance the total to 78 when caught at slip pushing forward defensively to off-spinner Archie Vaughan. But Sibley batted comfortably through the morning session to be unbeaten on 35 at lunch, which was taken at 86 for 2.

Ollie Pope began the afternoon session by lofting Vaughan over long-on for six and, like Burns, looked ready to be positive at every opportunity, while Sibley played the anchor role, reaching a typically solid half-century off 138 balls, with eight fours.

A Sibley boundary to fine leg brought up a fifty stand and it came as a surprise when, with the total on 131, Pope fell leg-before on the back foot, playing across a straight ball from Gregory, wicketkeeper James Rew having just moved to stand up to the stumps.

On 59, Sibley survived a confident lbw shout from Leach, but soon another useful partnership developed as Lawrence played with characteristic aggression, smacking Leach over wide long-on for six.

With tea approaching, Sibley was lured into a trap, glancing a ball directed at leg stump by Migael Pretorius, who had been awarded his Somerset county cap before play commenced, straight to the perfectly positioned Abell at leg-slip. It was 174 for 4 and nine more runs were added before the interval.

Lawrence had glided to 34 and the final session saw him produce arguably the shot of the day with a glorious straight-driven four off Pretorius. His sixth boundary, a flowing off-drive off Vaughan, took him to an 86-ball half-century.

Foakes was looking equally at ease as the pair brought up a century stand off 156 balls. He moved fluently to the third fifty of the innings off 93 balls as the scoring rate accelerated, Lawrence slog-sweeping Leach for a big six over midwicket and then a straighter one in the same over.

It was looking all too easy for Surrey as stumps approached, Lawrence going to a typically easy-on-the-eye hundred with his fourth six, smashed over wide long-on off Leach in the final over. The unbroken stand with Foakes was worth 153.