Trescothick masterclass blows away Yorkshire

County Round-Up

Somerset's season started slowly but they're up to full speed now.

The West Country side, heavily tipped to win their first Championship this season before a ball had been bowled, raced to a 10-wicket victory against Yorkshire yesterday courtesy of a remarkable innings of 151 from Marcus Trescothick.

The former England opener scored his runs off just 131 balls as the home side made a target of 228 look ordinary, getting home in just 40.1 overs. It was Trescothick's second century in the match and it completed their third victory this season, a season that began calamitously with back-to-back innings defeats. Arul Suppiah, his opening partner, hit a comparatively restrained 67.

"When we were set 228 to win I was confident, although I thought it would be more of a test than it proved to be, particularly with Adil Rashid bowling into the rough," Trescothick said afterwards. "Arul batted really well again and it was a big win for us because it keeps us in touch with the leading clubs. Only Lancashire have really got off to a flyer and it keeps things interesting for the second half of the season."

Optimism at Taunton is back almost to pre-season levels, but they have at least a couple of dangerous looking rivals – chief amongst them Lancashire – for the Championship, which has one more round to go before taking a Twenty20 break.

Durham, who yesterday competed a overwhelming victory over Warwickshire despite the Bears (legally) fielding 12 batsmen in their first innings, are also looking dangerous. Their victory by an innings and 103 runs keeps them in second. Ben Stokes took seven wickets in the match, for a cost of 145 runs.