Nikhil Gorantla produced a resilient century and carried his bat for 133 not out on the first day of Surrey’s Second XI Championship fixture against Somerset at Taunton Vale Sports Club.
The right-handed opener pushed the Three Feathers to 236 all out before the hosts batted beautifully to reach 130/0 at the close of play.
After Surrey elected to bat, openers Alfie Haxton, who has peeled off two double centuries for Surrey U18s this season, and Gorantla began brightly. Haxton, in particular, got off to a flier, hitting eight fours against the new ball.
On the final ball of the eighth over, however, Haxton timed one straight into the waiting hands of deep square leg off the bowling of ZXN Vukusic, his innings ending on 34 off 27 balls.
Despite the fall of his wicket, which brought skipper Ollie Sykes to the crease, Surrey continued to build on their early momentum as Gorantla now found his feet and took on the role of the aggressor. The promising second wicket stand added 54 runs, of which 42 came off Gorantla’s bat, before Sykes edged M Johal to second slip for 10.
Somerset pounced on this opportunity and went on a roll just ahead of the lunch interval, as left-arm spinner HNJ Richards pinned Ralphie Albert lbw to collect first of his four wickets, before Johal struck twice, getting Alex Dodson caught at midwicket and hitting the knee roll of Tim Lloyd for another lbw.
Gorantla and Roan Kennedy arrested Surrey’s slide and took their side safely to lunch on 121/5, with the former moving past his fifty with a well-timed on-drive for four.
The pair added another 49 runs in the afternoon session, taking their stand to 73 runs, with Gorantla doing the heavy lifting of scoring as he punished anything too full or too short either side of the wicket.
It turned out to be Richards who found the breakthrough when Kennedy chopped on for 20 off 64 balls. Next in was Yousef Majid, who tried to support Gorantla from the other end, and stuck around for 25 balls until Richards found his outside edge and Vukusic grabbed a stunning single-handed catch, diving low to right at first slip.
Shortly after, with Gorantla still in his 90s, Oliver Gibson was dismissed in similar fashion as he nicked off left-arm spinner MAW Kaleem to Vukusic, who collected another one-handed catch at first slip.
Before Alex French was clean bowled by Richards, Gorantla brought up his well-deserved century with a deft late cut, also taking Surrey beyond 200.
Now batting alongside Surrey’s no.11 Archie Barraclough, who stuck around for 27 balls and 43 minutes without scoring a run, Gorantla unfurled some innovative shots and managed to find five boundaries, adding another 32 runs to Surrey’s total, before Vukusic had Barraclough caught behind.
The Three Feathers finished on 236, thanks in huge part to Gorantla’s impressive 133 not out off 180 balls, which included 22 fours, struck all around the ground.
Somerset’s left-handed openers WR Michael (51*) and S Perera (71*) started their innings in dashing fashion and batted wonderfully to take their side to 136/0 from 36 overs by the close.
They complemented each other nicely as Perera took a more aggressive approach whilst Michael batted cautiously, ensuring the hosts were trailing only by 106 runs at stumps. Both of them proved to be strong on the off-side, with Michael making the most of square of the wicket and Perera punching his shots through covers.
After Perera had nudged the pace of Barraclough to reach his fifty, Michael swept Albert to move to the milestone 11 overs later.
