Somerset v Durham: Toss
MARCUS Trescothick won the toss and opted for first use of a green pitch in today's County Championship game against Durham at Taunton.
The reason was that while the middle of the track is a seamer-friendly hue, the ends are shaved to help the spinners. And with two in Durham's line-up, Trescothick perhaps did not want the champions bowling last on it.
Leg spinner Scott Borthwick has joined slow left-armer Ian Blackwell in the Durham line-up, while the fit-again Mark Davies was chosen ahead of Chris Rushworth.
Stephen Harmison (foot), Callum Thorp (calf) and Graham Onions (knee) are all missing through injury.
After a relatively benign start to the morning, a brief but very heavy downpour soaked the ground shortly after the captains tossed up. As a non-Test ground, Taunton does not have the hi-tech drainage systems of many Division One grounds, so a lengthy delay is a possibility.
SOMERSET: Trescothick (c), Suppiah, De Bruyn, Kieswetter (wk), Hildreth, Compton, Trego, Phillips, Thomas, Kartik, Willoughby.
DURHAM: Di Venuto, Stoneman, Muchall, Benkenstein, Blackwell, Stokes, Mustard (c/wk), Borthwick, Plunkett, Claydon, Davies.
Umpires: Richard Illingworth and Jeremy Lloyds.
