Bottom-of-the-table Somerset laboured to 78 for 4 from 28 overs in the opening session at Lord’s after choosing to bat first against champions Middlesex.

 

New ball strikes by Toby Roland-Jones and Tim Murtagh initially left Somerset reeling at 20 for 2 but Dean Elgar and James Hildreth led a partial recovery with a stand of 46 before Hildreth fell for 25 to a stunning slip catch by Ollie Rayner.

 

Hildreth edged a drive at James Franklin’s left-arm seamers and Rayner, at second slip, took off to his right to hold a brilliant diving catch.

 

Tom Helm, switched to the Pavilion End for his second spell, then had Steven Davies caught at the wicket for 6 – edging a sharply rising ball – and, at lunch, only left-handed opener Elgar had held firm with 27 not out.

 

Marcus Trescothick was the first Somerset batsman to depart, caught at third slip for 8 off Roland-Jones after playing and missing several times at Murtagh, who then produced a perfect away-swinger from the Nursery End to have Tom Abell taken at the wicket for 6.

 

With a little bit of grass on the pitch to encourage them, and some bounce for the quicker bowlers Helm and Roland-Jones, it was an excellent morning’s work for the four-pronged Middlesex seam attackat the start of a Specsavers County Championship Division One fixture that is important to both sides in the context of their season.