Peter Trego called it the innings of his life - a 54-ball century that enabled Somerset to pull off one of the most amazing County Championship wins in their history.

A four-wicket victory over Yorkshire at Taunton featured the second highest successful run-chase in the 145-year history of the competition as the home side reached a massive target of 476 with 4.3 overs to spare.

You have to go back to 1925 when Middlesex made 502-6 to beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge to find a bigger winning total by the side batting last in a Championship fixture.

So no one who was at the County Ground today is likely to forget the game or Trego's incredible clean hitting, which brought him 9 sixes and 6 fours in his 103 not out, coming in at number seven.

Arul Suppiah's career-best 131, a brilliant 96 from Marcus Trescothick and 49 from David Stiff after he was promoted to number four in the bid for quick runs were other features of an astonishing day's cricket.

And, to complete the drama, within moments of the players leaving the field the heavens opened for a downpour which would have ended play had it happened a few minutes earlier.

Somerset's seasoned skipper Justin Langer called the victory "a bit of a miracle", while Trego attributed his dramatic innings to "a few verbals" from Yorkshire seamer Ajmal Shahzad.

He told somersetcountycc.co.uk: "When I first went in it was uppermost in my mind to just stay there because I haven't been in the best of form in red ball cricket.

"Then Shahzad started winding me up and suddenly the ball turned from a pea into a balloon. I decided to let him have some!

"It has to be the innings of my life, perhaps along with the one I played against Gloucestershire at Bristol in the Twenty20 Cup recently. Most of my previous centuries have come in games we haven't won so this was extra special.

"We definitely felt we had a chance at the start of the innings because of the strength of our batting line-up and the fact that it was a very flat pitch.

"But it was Arul and Tres who really set up the win. If they hadn't batted so well I would have been going in to save the game, rather than with any chance of winning it."  

It was the fourth highest run-chase in first class cricket in England and the eighth highest in the world.

Yorkshire skipper Anthony McGrath had erred on the side of caution by allowing his side to bat on for 20 minutes at the start of the day, adding 34 runs before declaring on 363 for five.

But he found Somerset up for the challenge from the start as Suppiah and Trescothick put together an opening stand of 187 in 42 overs.

Trescothick played superbly for his 96, off 117 balls, with 15 fours and a six, and was unlucky to fall four short of his second century of the match when he played on attempting to leave a ball from Matthew Hoggard.

By then it was a real contest. The score had progressed to 246 when Suppiah, whose only previous Championship century was 123 against Derbyshire at Derby in 2005, had a swing at off-spinner Azeem Rafiq and top edged a catch to McGrath at mid-wicket.

The opener had faced 175 balls and hit 14 fours and 2 sixes to finally record the big score he has been seeking after several promising starts this summer.

Incredibly, his departure saw Somerset turn up the heat by sending in tall pace bowler Stiff, a former Yorkshire player, as a pinch-hitter on the day he was awarded a new one-year contract.

Stiff responded with four mighty sixes and 4 fours in scoring 49 off 32 balls. But when he fell to Hoggard with the total on 307-4 and Craig Kieswetter could manage only 17 before being bowled stepping back to cut Rafiq it seemed Somerset would fall short.

Langer was content to work the ball around while his partners went for the big hits. And it was Trego, coming in at seven, who succeeded in the most spectacular manner.

He scored 42 of his runs in the space of 11 balls as he took 17 off five deliveries from Rafiq and then 25 of an over from Shahzad, responding to the 'verbals' with 4,6,4,6,4,1.

Suddenly Somerset needed only five an over from the last nine. But, although Langer fell to a catch behind for 24, Trego went on swinging from the hip to record the fastest first class century of the season.

Zander de Bruyn (27 not out) provided the necessary composure and class at the death, hitting the winning boundary just before the clouds burst to complete Somerset's third successive Championship victory.

It was the climax to one of those sporting days when those present are proud to say "I was there."

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