Liddle's praise for five-star White as Northants keep Somerset in sight

The right-arm pace bowler’s efforts dragged Northants back into the game, helping to dismiss Somerset for 351 at Wantage Road, with the visitors at one stage sitting very pretty at 215 for three, having been asked to bat by skipper Luke Procter.

White claimed five for 77 from 24 excellent overs, and was backed up by Tom Taylor and Justin Broad, who both claimed two wickets - Broad's victims the first of his first-class career.

For Somerset, Sean Dickson top-scored with 70, with George Bartlett making 55 and there were crucial 40s from Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Lewis Gregory and Craig Overton.

White's five-wicket haul was his second of the season, the other also coming against the Cidermen at Taunton, and the fourth of his career. White now has 28 wickets to his name this summer.

Liddle was delighted for the 31-year-old, but felt he deserved even more for his efforts.

“Jack has bowled beautifully all year for us the way he has gone about his business," said Liddle. "The skill set he has with the ball is fantastic.

"He has formed a great partnership with Ben Sanderson at the other end as well, so I’m over the moon for Jack and the way he bowled.

“His figures reflect how well he bowled. He beat the bat a lot and had a lot of lbw shouts that were close and all in all he deserved the five wickets, he was top class.

“His five wickets could have been seven or eight. He’s had plenty of dropped catches this year and credit to him he’s managed to park that a little bit because it can eat you up a little bit thinking you should have more wickets than you’ve actually got."

On the state of the game, Liddle admitted that Somerset have scored more than is ideal, but backed the County batters to respond positively.

“A total of 350 is a few more than we’d have hoped they’d get," admitted Liddkle. "We needed a bit of fortune. There was a lot of playing and missing not just against Jack, but the other bowlers too.

“We probably didn’t bowl as well as we wanted to before lunch, but I thought we came out after lunch, built some pressure and started picking up wickets.“There’s still plenty in the wicket. Hopefully the sun comes out and starts to dry it out a bit more and hopefully they’ll be less nip and swing than there was on the first day.”

Day two is scheduled to start at the County Ground at 11am.

Quotes courtesy of Jon Batham