Worcestershire 35 for 2 trail Somerset 250 (Hildreth 41, Morris 5-71) by 215 runs
Scorecard
Charlie Morris reached a new milestone in a fast-developing career as Worcestershire dismissed Somerset for 250 on the opening day of the County Championship meeting between teams who each lost their first two matches of the season.
Despite their grilling by a young quick bowler, Somerset may feel they have a workable total and it looked this way when Alfonso Thomas and Lewis Gregory had the home side on an uneasy 35 for 2 at stumps.
Last year Morris, the latest in a line of young cricketers to come out of Somerset territory at King's College, Taunton, marked his first full campaign in county cricket by taking 52 wickets as Worcestershire achieved promotion for the fifth time since 2003. Now the Hereford-born six-footer, a strong, reliable bowler with the pace to hurry batsmen, has captured five wickets for the first time in a Division One match.
For a young bowler, he has maintained impressive form in 19 consecutive Championship appearances from his debut. The pitch for this game, more an old-style New Road surface with bounce and good carry, gave Morris something to work with.
An opening spell of 4 for 34 in 11 overs would have been what his captain, Daryl Mitchell, wanted on deviating from his usual policy of batting first at county headquarters. Marcus Trescothick, already in good form with a hundred against Middlesex last week, gloved a catch to Ben Cox - the first of five for the wicketkeeper, four off Morris and one off Joe Leach.
After losing Trescothick in the fourth over, Somerset were beginning to make some headway until Morris scythed through the top order with three wickets in 15 balls. Johann Myburgh, and Tom Cooper edged to Cox and Jim Allenby was neatly held by Mitchell at second slip.
Worcestershire's progress was halted for a time by a predictable source. James Hildreth, another century-maker last week, played with some assurance for 41 from 78 balls and Alex Barrow was a willing assistant in a partnership of 61. This was only broken when Barrow propped forward and found second slip and in the following over Leach, deputising for Gareth Andrew, as he did for much of last summer, added Hildreth to Cox's list of dismissals. Andrew is again out after a recurrence of a back injury.
Peter Trego was taking evasive action when inadvertently deflecting a lifting Leach delivery to second slip but Worcestershire missed a big chance when Craig Overton might have been out before he had scored in his first Championship innings after injury. The cost was measured in a stand of 52 with England new boy Gregory until wickets again fell in successive overs, Gregory driving Leach to cover and Overton scooped up by the Cox-Morris combination. This gave Morris a full return of 5 for 71 but he was denied a new career-best when Abdur Rehman was dropped before helping Somerset to a second batting point.
Paceman Morris could not disguise his delight at his performance: "It was fantastic to bowl Somerset out. It was doing a bit but I think it's a good cricket wicket. There's enough there if you get the ball in the right place, and certainly enough bounce and movement. Having said that, if you miss your line and length, it's a pretty true track."
Hildreth, meanwhile, had few complaints over Somerset's score: "Looking at the pitch it seems quite good, but there has been lateral movement off the seam and it's a bit up and down. All in all, we'll take 250. It could be enough to work with. You always aim for 400 and maximum batting points but sometimes you have to adjust according to the wicket. Tomorrow could be a bit boring, bowling in the channels and not trying to do too much. Wickets will come."
