SOMERSET toiled on their way to 122-7 in reply to Worcestershire's 305-5, on the first day of their opening pre-season fixture in Taunton.

Worcestershire had themselves struggled early on, having been put in by their hosts and promptly reduced to 9-2 inside five overs.

Josh Davey and Craig Overton, both so impressive in Somerset's Bob Willis Trophy campaign in 2020, were the men to strike.

The visitors recovered well, however, and reached 110-2 at lunch, thanks to Riki Wessels and Gareth Roderick.

Roderick (53) departed in spectacular fashion, as Davey showed outstanding reflexes to tip a shot from Wessels onto the stumps at the bowler's end.

Wessels continued onto 101, at which point he retired, but the onslaught continued from Ross Whiteley (79*), Jack Haynes (18) and Alex Milton (36*), as Worcestershire piled on 305-5 from 60 overs.

Overton - Somerset's captain for this match - bowled tidily on his way to 1-14 off eight overs, with Davey taking 1-30 off nine and Ned Leonard 1-31 off 10, but all of the other bowlers went for more than five an over as their opponents let loose.

New signing Marchant de Lange finished with 0-46 off his nine overs.

Having made a wonderful start with the ball, Somerset made a dreadful one with the bat, losing four wickets inside the first five overs of their reply.

Ben Green (4), Tom Lammonby (0), James Hildreth (0) and George Bartlett (10) all perished in no time at all, before Eddie Byrom and Steve Davies mounted a fightback from 20-4.

Davies went for 17, however, to give Joe Leach (3-32) his third wicket of the afternoon, bringing Overton in to join Byrom at 46-5.

Byrom was out for 28 not long after, but Overton was still there on 38* as Somerset closed on 122-7 - Dillon Pennington (2-13) being Worcestershire's other destroyer-in-chief.

The second and final day of the match is due to start at 11am tomorrow.