County Championship: Rory Burns helps Surrey edge ahead of Somerset

Rory Burns was one of three Surrey half-centurions as the defending champions took a first-innings lead against visitors Somerset on day two at the Kia Oval.

The Brown Caps skipper struck 10 boundaries in a fluent 76, sharing a first-wicket stand of 129 with fellow former England opener Dominic Sibley (53), who passed 50 for the fifth time in six innings this season.

England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith was the third to reach his half-ton with 58 as the hosts closed on 321-7 at stumps.

Somerset’s bowlers recovered from a morning where they bowled too full a length, skipper Lewis Gregory leading the way with 3-46, including a double strike with the second new ball, as four wickets fell in the final session.

Having bowled out Somerset for 283 on the cusp of stumps on day one, Burns and Sibley enjoyed a morning of dominance as they begun Surrey’s reply.

Save for the odd ball which bounced a little for those bowling from the Vauxhall End and the odd lbw shout, Burns moved serenely along, Somerset’s bowlers guilty of straying onto the pads too often to feed his trademark shot through mid-wicket. In fact, anything pitched up was quickly seized on by the 34 year-old left-hander as he raced to 50 from 77 balls.

As ever, Sibley’s progress was sedate but rock solid, the pair reaching lunch one short of the century stand.

If anything, Burns looked even better post-lunch, driving with authority to move into the 70s and he appeared destined for a century before Josh Davey produced the ball of the day to remove him.

Bowling around the wicket, Davey extracted bounce and while Burns did everything right, trying to drop his hands, the ball followed him and smacked off the top glove for Kasey Aldridge to pouch the catch at slip.

Ollie Pope was bowled by skipper Gregory trying to cut a ball too close to him, but Smith came out bristling with aggression and began with a flurry of boundaries.

Sibley reached a fifth 50 in 151 balls, but even he ran out of patience, uncharacteristically charging England spinner Jack Leach and being beaten in the flight as the ball cannoned into the stumps.

Smith too would make it to his half-century before his innings ended tamely, a mis-timed pull off Aldridge only travelling as far as Gregory at mid-on.

By this stage Ben Foakes was in flow, the diminutive wicketkeeper sending successive deliveries from Leach to the fence at point. However, with 50 in sight he was undone by a beauty from Gregory with the second new ball which nipped between bat and pad to pluck out the off-stump.

There was further reward for Gregory when Ryan Patel fell cheaply to a superbly judged tumbling catch at long-leg by Leach and Jordan Clark edged behind before the close to limit the home side’s advantage.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay