ON a strange day at New Road, which saw 17 wickets fall, Worcestershire crumbled to 161 all out before their bowlers staged a spirited fightback to reduce Somerset to 97-7 at the close -- a lead of 342 runs.

Despite the impressive bowling effort -- spearheaded by Zaheer Khan who claimed four second innings scalps to go with the four he bagged in the first innings -- Steve Rhodes' men have little realistic chance of winning the game.

Rhodes praised the impact of Indian left-armer Zaheer, but admitted his side had let the game get away from them with their first innings performances with both bat and ball.

He said: "We didn't bowl or bat well in our first innings. Yes, there was some good Somerset bowling, but we made some costly errors against the swinging ball.

"Our attempt at bowling in the second innings was much better in the sense that we bowled better areas, swung the ball nicely and it was an inspired spell by Zaheer. It was just what he deserved and I'm sure we have got a lot of pleasurable times ahead with him.

"I think it will be difficult to win this game from here, but we will be positive and we will not be thinking that it is impossible."

Worcestershire started the day requiring 257 runs to avoid the follow-on after Somerset had posted 406 on the opening day.

Opener Daryl Mitchell batted stoically for his 52 -- he spent 177 balls at the crease -- as the wickets tumbled around him, but none of his colleagues could match his application as the County were all out for 161 -- 245 runs short of Somerset's first innings total.

Ex-England man Andrew Caddick ripped the heart out of the home side with 5-40 off 18.2 overs, including the wickets of Vikram Solanki (34), Ben Smith (9), Graeme Hick (8) and Steven Davies (0).

Caddick picked up four of his five wickets for five runs in a devastating 28-ball spell.

Vigil

Mitchell's vigil -- which saw him go 56 balls without scoring at one stage -- ended when he got a leading edge off Peter Trego and Caddick was on hand to pouch the chance.

After tea, Zaheer staged a fine bowling performance, taking 4-22 in 13 overs to give the County a lifeline, albeit a slim one.

The paceman dismissed Matthew Wood and John Francis before picking up Carl Gazzard and Trego with successive deliveries.

Matt Mason, Kabir Ali and Nadeem Malik all chipped in with a wicket apiece.

Even if Worcestershire pick up the remaining three Somerset wickets cheaply, they will still probably need to score more than 350 to win.