Yorkshire staged a spirited fightback on day two of the Rothesay County Championship match against First Division leaders Somerset at the Cooper Associates Ground, Taunton.

Seamer Jack White played a starring role, returning figures of four for 41 from 16 overs as hitherto dominant Somerset were bowled out for 274, losing their last seven wickets for just 73 runs in 28 overs.

In-form Tom Abell registered 50 and Will Smeed an unbeaten 36, but the morning session belonged to the visitors, who bowled and fielded with intensity to restrict their opponents to a first-innings lead of 112.

Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Finlay Bean then negotiated 4.3 overs before rain moved in, causing 62.3 overs to be lost in the day. Yorkshire will resume their second innings on 13 without loss, trailing by 99, their chances of saving the game materially enhanced by the elements.

Charged with the task of restoring lost pride after having been outplayed on the first day, resurgent Yorkshire enjoyed the best possible start, claiming two wickets in three overs without conceding a run to partially redress the balance. The visitors’ most incisive bowler this season, White removed Josh Thomas and teenager Thomas Rew in the space of three deliveries from the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion end as Somerset slipped to 201 for five.

Unable to add to his overnight 136, Thomas deflected an inside edge to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, while Rew, making only his second first class appearance, steered a defensive edge to Bean at third slip without troubling the scorers.

Having adopted a supporting role in a lucrative stand of 166 for the fourth wicket, Abell now took centre stage, going to a carefully-crafted 50 from 140 balls with a six and a quartet of fours. But his resistance was cut short by the deserving George Hill, who lured him half forward and induced a nick to Joe Root at first slip with the score 223 for six in the 62nd. Introduced at the river end, Logan van Beek then got in on the act, nipping one back off the seam to bowl Craig Overton and accelerate the Somerset decline.

Yorkshire were in the ascendant and, having faced 20 balls to get off the mark, Smeed enjoyed a large slice of luck, dropped on 14 by Bean at third slip off the bowling of Australian paceman Jhye Richardson. Making good his escape, he joined forces with Lewis Gregory to stage a restorative eighth-wicket stand of 42, in the process banking a first batting bonus point and extending the lead to three figures.

Having chiseled 36 from 82 balls and defended stoutly, Smeed was left high and dry when the tail collapsed with indecent haste, three wickets falling in the space of nine balls just before lunch as the innings ended with a whimper. Slow left armer Dom Bess induced Gregory to hole out to long-on for 15 and Migael Pretorius perished in identical fashion at the hands of Matthew Revis, who then had Alfie Ogborne held at mid-wicket at the conclusion of a session in which the home side fell away in dramatic fashion.

Only 4.3 overs were possible after the break, umpires Mike Burns and Rob White taking the players off at 2pm as the forecast rain arrived from the South West. Tea was taken at 3.10pm, but there was no respite from the elements and the anticipated abandonment materialised at 4.45pm following an inspection.