County Championship: Brendan Taylor ton gives Notts upper hand against Durham

Brendan Taylor scored an impressive century as Nottinghamshire closed day one of their Specsavers County Championship Division One game with Durham at Trent Bridge on 353-6.

After winning the toss, Notts captain Steven Mullaney opted to have first use of what looked to be a good batting surface, only to soon find himself back in the pavilion having made just two.

In fact, it was not long before the home side were struggling on 27-3 after Graham Onions had Greg Smith caught by skipper Paul Collingwood.

However, despite Michael Lumb (22) falling to push on after getting a start, Taylor and Samit Patel then put on 168 runs for the fifth wicket to help Notts recover to 261-5 when the Zimbabwean was finally dismissed for 114 off just 189 balls.

Patel fell 16 runs short of his own hundred after being bowled by leg-spinner Scott Borthwick, but Durham - unbeaten so far this season - failed to capture anymore wickets thereafter as wicketkeeper Riki Wessels (46) and Brett Hutton (33) added an unbroken 62 for the seventh wicket.

Elsewhere on Saturday, bottom-of-the-table Surrey struggled to 236-8 on the first day of their encounter with Somerset at Taunton.

The visitors lost regular wickets throughout a rain-interrupted day after winning the toss, with no batsman managing to make a half-century in the process as only 81 overs were bowled.

Steven Davies top scored for Surrey with a well-compiled 49 from 119 deliveries, a knock that included six fours, before the No 5 batsman became one of slow left-armer Jack Leach's four wickets.

And the Somerset faithful were also treated to an elegant innings from former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara, his breezy 45 coming off only 83 balls before the left-hander was caught and bowled by Tim Groenewald.