Josh Thomas and Archie Vaughan guided Somerset to their target in just 5.4 overs at the Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day three).

Essex scored 149 & 245: Walter 70; Pretorius 3-64. Somerset totaled 348: Overton 141 & 49-0: Vaughan 41*.

Somerset (21 pts) defeated Essex (3 pts) by 10 wickets. Craig Overton delivered a remarkable all-round captain's performance to lead Somerset to a comfortable 10-wicket County Championship victory over Essex with more than four sessions to spare.

Standing in as captain in the absence of the injured Lewis Gregory, Overton excelled in all aspects of the game: he scored his second career century, led the bowling attack with four wickets, took a catch, and called correctly at the toss to utilize a green-tinged pitch.

The 32-year-old former England seamer quickly removed the two set overnight batters, Matt Critchley and Paul Walter, after a promising stand of 96, putting Essex under pressure, as they were already 199 runs behind on the first innings and never truly recovered.

Set 47 to win, Somerset reached their target in just 15 minutes and 5.4 overs, with a flurry of boundaries. Injury substitute Archie Vaughan, eager to prove himself after being sidelined this season, quickly scored 19 runs in just five balls off a single over from Sam Cook.

He then hit two sixes off Simon Harmer over mid-wicket on his way to scoring 41 runs from 25 balls. Somerset had to make a second injury substitution in this match as Lewis Goldsworthy was replaced after tweaking his hamstring the day before. Tom Kohler-Cadmore had been ruled out with a badly bruised thumb, prompting Will Smeed to race over from a second-team game in Abergavenny to fill his spot.

Vaughan, the 13th player Somerset had to mobilize, was involved early, taking a low catch to dismiss Critchley on just the 15th ball of the morning. Critchley had only added six to his overnight total and had looked to help Essex recover. However, Somerset's bowlers found renewed vigor on a pitch that had flattened out on day two.

With only nine more runs added, Walter followed Critchley back to the pavilion after a leading edge resulted in a catch off Overton's bowling, giving him a second wicket within the first 25 minutes. After his very effective start, Overton had morning figures of 2-14 from five overs. Even before he took a break and handed the ball to Josh Shaw, Overton had a third wicket involvement of the day, as ten balls after Walter's dismissal, he caught Michael Pepper for nought off Jake Ball.

Essex was still seven runs short of forcing Somerset to bat again when Wiaan Mulder's brave resistance was ended. Mulder, suffering from back spasms, attempted an ill-advised hook shot that flew to the wicketkeeper. Overton's only mistake of the entire match came when he dropped Shane Snater on four at second slip off Pretorius.

Essex managed to extend their innings past lunch, due to some spirited hitting from the ninth-wicket pair Shane Snater and Cook, before the innings concluded swiftly when Pretorius dismissed Snater, finishing with figures of 3-64.

Report by ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay.