Cricket: Rose leads Somerset's resurrection

Yorkshire 244 and 101-3; Somerset 235

SECOND verse same as the first, Somerset, like Yorkshire, deep in trouble at the half-way point in their opening innings before being bailed out by the middle and lower order. On day one, Craig White had kept the show on the road and yesterday it was the turn of Graham Rose to rise to the occasion here on a turner.

Yorkshire had lost their front five for 99 and Somerset kept them company by slip-sliding away to 103 for 5 - all this after reaching 65 without loss. Indeed, five down for 38 in 14 overs became 7 for 71 in 24 even before the first session had run its course. Monday was looking like a blank day, even more so when Mushtaq Ahmed was twirling away after tea.

Somerset are seeking their seventh successive Championship win here, but that was furthest from their thoughts when Jeremy Batty was zipping through the order. The off-spinner started a collapse by having Mark Lathwell taken at slip and, off his next ball, Nick Folland's push to midwicket resulted in Andy Hayhurst's run-out. Batty also bagged Chris Tavare for a duck, Neil Burns and Mushtaq, hisspell then reading 4 for 57 in 19 overs.

Rose, meanwhile, began conducting the fightback and, together with Andy Caddick, raised 29 for the eighth wicket. Better still was the 55 he next put on with Neil Mallender before falling leg-before to Peter Hartley for 41.

Mallender went on to make 36 and the tail continued to wag when Andre van Troost battered Batty's figures with successive straight hits for four.

So Somerset finished nine in arrears and now they could consider another win here. The ball was given to Mushtaq, the leg-spinner reeling off 21 consecutive overs and removing Martyn Moxon, Paul Grayson and David Byas to pass 50 wickets for the summer and leave Yorkshire 110 ahead and the match finely poised.