County Championship Division One

Surrey 459 beat Somerset 180 & 210 by an innings and 69 runs

SOMERSET were knocked off top spot in the County Championship after going down to an innings defeat at new leaders Surrey.

The visitors began the day following on and lost five wickets by lunchtime, with only James Hildreth (89*) offering much in the way of resistance as Surrey wrapped up the victory just before tea.

Somerset resumed on 18-0 but got off to the worst possible start, as Matt Renshaw (2) fell lbw to Morne Morkel from the first ball of the day.

George Bartlett (7) and Eddie Byrom (19) each fell with the score on 33, the former chasing a wide one before Byrom fended a short Morkel delivery into the hands of Will Jacks at short leg.

When Tom Abell (5) was then trapped lbw by Jade Dernbach and Steve Davies (9) edged to gully having been squared up by Rikki Clarke, Somerset were staring down the barrel at 69-5.

Lewis Gregory joined Hildreth and the pair stemmed the tide either side of the lunch interval, adding 52 for the sixth wicket before Gregory (32) edged Morkel to Clarke at first slip. 

Clarke, who had taken four wickets in the first innings before Ryan Patel's 6-5 stole the headlines, produced a peach of a delivery to clean bowl Dom Bess (6), but Josh Davey dug in to provide useful support to Hildreth.

The Scottish international fought hard for his 21 before top edging a hook behind, and Tim Groenewald was then clean bowled for a duck to leave Somerset on the brink.

Max Waller came in as last man in place of Jack Leach, who suffered concussion when hit by a Morkel bouncer on day two under the new substitute regulations, but lasted just three balls before being dismissed by Morkel without scoring.

Hildreth, who passed 15,000 First Class runs for Somerset during the course of his innings, was left stranded on 89 not out as the visitors fell to their first defeat of the season.

After a fine start to the season, this is perhaps a wake-up call for Somerset, who have been thoroughly outplayed in all disciplines over the three days.

The decision to make use of an uncontested toss and bowl on the first morning has proven to be misguided, though skipper Tom Abell could have been forgiven for expecting the visiting batsmen to put up a stronger fight across both innings.

The collapse against part-time bowler Ryan Patel yesterday ultimately decided the outcome, as it left Somerset with far too much to do to save the game against an impressive pace attack.

Somerset will perhaps be pleased there is not long to dwell on this result - their day/night Championship trip to Essex begins on Monday.

James Hildreth said: "It's obviously disappointing, and probably down to a mixture of bad batting by us and some good bowling by Surrey.

"They kept coming at us and Rikki Clarke, in particular, has become a really good bowler in the last few years and with the bat I was really impressed with Ollie Pope, he looks a fine prospect.

"We will just have to regroup and get back to it against Essex on Monday.

"Jack Leach won't play because of the concussion protocol, he is out for seven days but he's okay."