Siraj takes fifer on County debut for Warwickshire against Somerset

The pacer picked up five wickets in his first county match, playing for Warwickshire in the County Championship Division One.

London: Indian bowling star Mohammed Siraj made an impressive county debut for Warwickshire picking up a fifer on Tuesday against Somerset.

The pacer picked up five wickets in his first county match, playing for Warwickshire in the County Championship Division One.

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Warwickshire and Somerset are battling it out to avoid relegation and the pressure to assure a win has affected the batters of both the teams on a slow bowling friendly pitch.

On the second morning, Somerset started at 182 for 8 and lost Gregory to the fourth ball when he edged Siraj behind. However, the final partnership of Khan and Brooks scored 37 runs to push the total over 200. Prior to Brooks skying Henry Brookes to the point, Khan hit his fourth first-class fifty.

Despite Mohammed Siraj’s debut five-for (five for 82), they came back from 82 for seven to reach 219 with the lower order resistance led by Lewis Gregory (60, 97 balls) and Sajid Khan (53 not out, 64).

After that, Somerset carried their momentum onto the field and in the 14th over, they had Warwickshire reduced to 22 for three. Josh Davey struck when Rob Yates nicked to the wicketkeeper James Rew on the third ball. Gregory then produced edges of Alex Davies and Dominic Sibley to take two wickets.

As a result of 38-year-old Jack Brooks’ four for 40, including a spell of four for seven in 27 balls, the home team was bowled out for 196. Sam Hain top-scored with 67 for Warwickshire.

Somerset had a 23-run lead with eight overs left to bat in the day. Warwickshire had to respond, and they did so with Siraj when he got Imam-ul-Haq caught at second slip and Jayant Yadav managed to crash the ball into Aldridge’s stumps.

Ending the day at 13/2, Somerset are leading by 36 runs.

Earlier, Indian all-rounder Jayant Yadav also contributed with the bat for Warwickshire scoring 29 runs.
Somerset had won the toss and elected to bat first but were bundled out for 219 in their first innings.
Brief Score: Somerset 219 (Gregory 60, Khan 53*; Siraj 5-82) and 13 for 2 lead Warwickshire 196 (Hain 67, Brooks 4-40) by 36 runs