By lunch, Nottinghamshire had reached 36-0 in reply. As in Somerset’s innings, there was a more than usual amount of playing and missing against the seamers, which allowed Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed to extend their opening partnership to 59.

Pretorius broke the stand by bowling Slater for 30, playing down the wrong line to a delivery slanted into the left-hander.

With the total advanced to 72 and the floodlights on, the South African struck again as Hameed was brilliantly caught low down at cover by Tom Lammonby for 33, diving two-handed to his left, off a meaty square drive.

Freddie McCann and Clarke also had their fair share of fortune as Somerset’s bowlers suffered similar frustration to their Notts counterparts on day one. By the time rain forced an early tea just before 3.10pm, the pair had added 42, with McCann on 27 and Clarke 23.

A prompt resumption saw their half-century stand brought up off 81 balls. But, with the total on 128, Pretorius struck a third blow, Tom Kohler-Cadmore holding a routine catch at first slip after McCann, on 31, had edged an attempted cut.

As the ball became softer, Clarke and Haynes played with increasing assurance and had taken their stand to 43 by the time bad light halted proceedings for the first time at shortly before 5pm. Clarke was two short of a half-century, while Haynes was unbeaten on 28.

It proved a brief stoppage and Clarke quickly went to 50, off 99 balls, with eight fours. The menace had gone out of Somerset’s bowling and Overton turned to the left-arm spin of Leach, who reeled off nine overs from the River End to little effect.

Haynes took two fours off a Ball over and then thrashed Overton through the covers for another boundary to bring up his half-century off 76 deliveries.

Runs were coming too quickly for Somerset’s liking as the clouds gathered again and the umpires called a halt at shortly after 6pm, Pretorius ending the day with 3-33 from 15 overs.

Report by ECB Reporters’ Network.