Craig Overton put Somerset in a dominant position against Essex at Chelmsford with the highest score of an illustrious first-class career built largely on his skills with the ball rather than the bat.

The stand-in captain walked out on Friday evening with Somerset creaking at 114-5, still 35 runs behind Essex’s first innings, but had more than doubled the score in three-and-a-half hours at the crease by the time he was out for 141 in mid-afternoon. In partnerships of 98 with Lewis Goldsworthy and 118 with Will Smeed, Overton helped Somerset establish a 199-run lead.

It was a decade ago that the then 22-year-old Overton scored his only previous century, 138 against Hampshire, though he has been in formidable form with the bat in recent times: he has passed fifty in four of his last six Rothesay County Championship innings, stretching back to September, and 219 runs in three innings this season. His 180-ball ton included 19 fours and three sixes.

In response, Essex lost three wickets in the first 15 overs of their second innings before Paul Walter and Matt Critchley settled into a defiant fourth-wicket stand currently worth 86 runs either side of a 53-minute rain delay. Both batsmen timed the ball nicely with Walter reaching his first fifty of the season and Critchley hitting nine fours in his half-century. Essex closed on 131 for 3.

That Overton as captain had the Midas touch was evidenced when he won the toss on a bowler-friendly green-top. It continued when Essex batted again when he called up Jack Leach for a short, pre-tea spell and saw the spinner remove Dean Elgar with his sixth delivery, held low down at mid-on.

Then, straight after the interval, a switch of ends for Migael Pretorius led to Luc Benkenstein driving loosely at a wide ball that ended up in the wicketkeeper’s gloves. Charlie Allison departed without scoring when he dabbed Jake Ball into the slips.

However, it was a day all about Overton as batsman. It had initially been a more circumspect Devonian than on the previous evening when his first fifty had taken just 33 balls. On a now lifeless pitch, and under gloomy skies, he was content on a no-risk policy while building a solid advantage.

With Goldsworthy, Overton took that advantage to 63 before the stand was broken nearly an hour and 15 overs into the morning. Goldsworthy, who batted with Tom Lammonby as a runner after tweaking a hamstring before play, left his bat hanging out and was caught behind off Jamie Porter.

That brought in Smeed, the injury substitute for Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who damaged a thumb in taking a catch the previous morning, for his first-class debut. Smeed, a white-ball specialist, had decided recently to expand his career into the red-ball sphere. He took time to acclimatise, using up 18 balls before getting off the mark.

Overton may have slowed down his strike rate appreciably, but he still allowed himself the luxury of lofting Simon Harmer for another straight six. A single turned into the legside off the same bowler brought up his three-figures from 136 balls and a celebratory fist pump as he reached the non-striker’s end.

The arrival of the second new-ball signalled an upturn in the rate of scoring with 50 runs added in seven overs, with nine boundaries, before Overton’s epic effort was ended when he played down the wrong line to Shane Snater and was lbw. Without a run added Smeed was strangled down the legside by Cook to claim his third wicket.

Porter and Snater followed suit with their third wickets to wrap up the Somerset innings in the space of five balls: Pretorius thick-edged to first slip and Ball fell to a catch at third slip.