'We have got ourselves into a good position' says Shine at the Rosebowl

Somerset have played themselves into a strong position in their championship match at the Hampshire Rosebowl and by the end of the second day the hosts still required a further 36 runs with three first innings wickets remaining to avoid the follow on.

Resuming on 224 for 6, the overnight pair of Jamie Cox and Keith Dutch took the Cidermen onto 277 before Dutch was caught by Simon Katich off the bowling of Dimitri Mascarenhas.

The all rounder had been at the wicket for 2 hours and 55 minutes, faced 103 balls, hit nine boundaries and contributed an invaluable 61to the seventh wicket partnership of 115 with Cox.

Gareth Andrew making his first class debut was LBW to Katich for 7, but Nixon McLean stayed round long enough with Cox to see the 300 on the board, before he was caught and bowled by Mascarenhas for 16.

Meanwhile Cox continued to bat in his determined and resolute way, but in the end he ran out of partners when Hampshire `old boy' Simon Francis was out for no score by which time Somerset had reached 308.

The Tasmanian remained unbeaten at the other end on 127, his second successive championship hundred. In all Cox had batted for seven hours and twenty one minutes during which time he faced 334 balls and scored eleven fours.

The Somerset pacemen got their side off to a dream of start when McLean ripped out the first three Hampshire wickets with just 6 runs on the board. John Crawley and Derek Kenway were both out LBW and then the West Indian bowled veteran Robin Smith.

Katich and Will Kendall took Hampshire onto 38 before Francis disposed of Katich who was LBW for 24.

Kendall and Nic Pothas then stayed together for sometime to first of all bring up the fifty and then the hundred, before they were out in quick succession, both victims of debutant Andrew after sharing a fifth wicket partnership of 76.

Hampshire lost another wicket in the late afternoon until with the score on 123 for 7 and with 25 overs of the day remaining the players left the field for bad light from which they didn't return.

After the end of the day Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "I'm obviously very pleased with the way that things have gone for us and it's just a shame that we were robbed of those overs at the end of the day after we had got ourselves into such a good position."

He continued : "This morning Jamie Cox and Keith Dutch were excellent and batted in the disciplined kind of way that we needed if we were to get a decent score, and it was never easy batting out there and then Nixon McLean bowled very fast to reduce them to 6 for 3.Young Gareth Andrew has taken three wickets on his debut, he really is a fine young cricketer and could easily end up with a five wicket haul the way that he has bowled today."

"Tomorrow we will be looking to take the rest of their wickets cheaply and enforce the follow on. We have got to be really disciplined with our bowling in the morning to make sure that their tail doesn't wag," he concluded.

In the game between the two second elevens back at Taunton the second day finished honours just about even.

Resuming on 209 for 4, Hampshire took their score onto 300 for 6 before declaring. In reply Somerset scored 251 for 5 declared, with Piran Holloway scoring 115 and Carl Gazzard an unbeaten 54.

Batting for a second time Hampshire had scored 27 without loss before rain brought an early end to the day's proceedings.