County Championship - day one (close)

Surrey 351-5 v Somerset

THREE Surrey batsmen made half-centuries as Somerset endured a testing day in the field at Guildford.

Boosted by the return to fitness of Jack Leach and Tim Groenewald, Somerset captain Tom Abell chose to exercise his right to forego the toss and bowl first on a Guildford pitch which had patches of green.

Early breakthroughs were hard to come by for the Somerset pacemen, however, as despite beating the bat on occasion they were left frustrated by Arun Harinath and Rory Burns.

The much-needed wicket eventually arrived shortly before lunch with the score on 83 and it was Abell who provided it, trapping Harinath (48) lbw with a full inswinging delivery.

Scott Borthwick joined Burns and the pair took the score to 98-1 at lunch, after which the batsmen continued to ride their luck at times against some probing deliveries.

Lewis Gregory picked up his first wicket, dismissing Burns lbw for 66, but Borthwick and Ravi Patel added 88 for the third wicket.

Their promising stand was ended by the returning Groenewald, who produced a peach to clean bowl Borthwick for 83, and Dom Bess then removed Theunis de Bruyn without scoring as the debutant drove uppishly to James Hildreth at cover.

That left the hosts 247-4, but Ollie Pope looked in fluent touch from the off as he punished anything loose.

Abell picked up his second, having Patel caught behind for 48, but Pope moved past his half-century and ended the day unbeaten on 73 as he and Will Jacks (15*) saw the hosts to the close.

Somerset captain Tom Abell said: "I still think it was the right decision to bowl first and I can't fault the efforts of our bowlers all day.

At times we didn't get the rewards we deserved but we kept going. We beat the bat consistently, a few edges didn't go to ground but they are allowed to play well too and I thought they batted well."