Surrey vs Middlesex

Squad is:

The Hyphen (captain)
Michael Brown
Gary Wilson
Zander de Bruyn
Steven Davies (Wicket Keeper)
Tom Maynard
Chris Schofield
Gareth Batty
Chris Jordan
Yasir Arafat
Stuart Meaker
Jade Dernbach
Tim Linley

I assume that one from Jordan, Arafat and the Viscount will be selected. I would like to see Jordan given a chance, or if he's not ready, then the Viscount.

Corporal - I assume that Meaker is fully fit (he was off the pitch for much of Glammy's 2nd innings). On that basis, I agree your one of Arafat, the Viscount and Katie Price is most likely. Whilst I don't believe Arafat deserves his place tomorrow, I can't see Adams dropping him. Therefore probably the same team as last time.

A quirky - and admittedly remote - alternative would be to drop one of Wilson and Brown (they've been adequate but no more), promote Davies up the order to open and play not one but two of the three you've identified to bolster the bowling. I wouldn't advocate this for tomorrow but it might be considered before long if things remain unchanged; ie the openers failing to go on to make decent scores, Schofield and Batty continuing to bat excellently and the current bowlers struggling to wrap up the opponent's tail. Whilst I still remain unconvinced by the spinning skills of Schofield and Batty, their batting has been tremendous and that alone justifies their inclusion for now.

Unfortunately, as you note elsewhere, I won't be able to judge Berg tomorrow. It does seem that the Ice Man's England chances have melted away for now ....

I will just be happy if we can get Chris Rodgers out as we never seem able to do this. We need to bowl a team out soon or might just cry. Two draws and a win is a solid start, two draws and a defeat is a poor start.

Arafat trying to prove us wrong so far, unfortunately there appears to be a partnership building now. 77-3.

Not even the end of the first day yet and already it looks like the best we'll get is a draw.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Further comment to follow once I've calmed down, had a drink and braced myself to read Lover's inevitable posting about the Mighty Middle! For now -

BBC report says we bowled badly, which I believe. 3 times in a row we've had the opposition on the ropes and then let them back into it, although at least this time it was 2 batsmen and not their numbers 9 & 10....

It is clutching at straws a bit though, isn't it?

Thank god for Yasar,is all I'd be saying if I was Surrey supporter because the rest were truly awful.
Put us in and then bowl dross,unbelivable and the field placings were very strange.
Attack by all means ,but when Middlesex are scoring at 4 an over plus,why keep three or four in catching positions.
Having said that Dex and Simmo were most impressive.
I expect to see better from the South London Trundlers tomorrow GB,but we'll be looking for a maximum points haul from this one.

A deeply depressing day. Compounded by the news that Surrey won the toss. This looks like a throwback to the season before last when our bowling attack was minor counties standard at best.

Evening all (yes, even you Lover),

A highly frustrating day. Bowling started so well with both Arafat and Dernbach (unlucky in his opening spell not to get a wicket) on fire but petered out dreadfully and permanently after lunch. I was really puzzled by the decision to field. Seemed strange and inspired by lunchtime and just plain wrong after that. Even when wickets were falling in the morning, batting conditions still looked good (sunny with only a little cloud). From early afternoon onwards, they seemed ideal (blue sky with no cloud at all). I felt for Michael Brown who was at times practising shots on the boundary edge whilst seeming to cast envious glances towards the wicket. Maybe his day will come tomorrow but I thought his first opportunity should have been today.

To be fair to Middlesex and Lover, Dexter and Simpson were impressive displaying sensible early caution and after that stylish aggression. However, we didn't do nearly enough to make life difficult for them.

One plus point (hardly any after lunch) is that Jordan seems back to full fitness. He was often racing around the boundary edge and pulled off several fine stops. Also good to see many of the team happily signing autographs for children. To his credit, one of the signatories was twelfth man Schofield; he had more reason than anyone else to chuck his toys out of the pram having been dropped after his 99 last time out but outwardly seemed unruffled.

As Depressed said, 'Two draws and a win is a solid start, two draws and a defeat is a poor start.' Very hard to see us getting a win from here. At best, I think it'll be three draws in a row which is hardly inspiring.

If we end up getting a big score as well then I'll be a little less harsh on the bowlers but I have a feeling from what I have seen/read that there is a bit in this pitch and that Middlesex's bowlers will exploit it. I'm worried about this one.

I think we may all need 'depressed' in front of our usernames now. Part of me is a bit bitter that we don't have our England bowler but they have theirs. Either way a pathetic performance in this match (Maynard and Batty aside you have to say).

Absolutely dreadful (Tommy Boy aside).

Corporal - apologies but I'm going AWOL this evening and so won't be around to help you restraining Lover's celebrations! I suspect you may have to draft in extra troops ....

This is the first time in 3 matches that we've batted badly, and it has to be expected from time to time. The trouble is that we've been pretty toothless in all of our bowling performances which means one bad batting display and we're screwed. If we can't get 20 wickets we'll never win a game.

Not here to rub it in chaps,we've been there enough times to know the feeling.
Sure you'll put up a better show tomorrow,but I'm still looking for a day off on Saturday,

Lover - very restrained in the circumstances. We've been well outplayed so far

Carrot - agree about the names. "Depressed Carrot" has a certain ring to it. Tho it does sound a bit like the kind of mis shapen vegetable that used to appear on That's Life...

Guildford - off to drown the sorrows.... ?

I wonder whether Harinath is in line for a possible recall as an opener?

I would hope so...

Pre-season quote from Depressed responding to Corporal's suggestion that he would be disappointed if Surrey were not pressing for promotion:

"forget being disappointed I will be livid if we are not at least pushing for promotion. We have had long enough now to sort out our problems."

We seem to be pressing for the wooden spoon. If we subside with little or no fight today we'll need to watch out for Depressed! :flag:

73 - 4 - Looks like a very early finish

Davies and Wilson currently putting up a fight but surely too late.

I've just seen on the Club website that Ramps is playing for the seconds in a one day game tomorrow with the hope that he may be ready to play against Leics in next week's CC match. Given he wasn't expected to be back until the end of May, a tremendous recovery or pure desperation!

Lover - a very gracious response, thank you. Most of here have been around the block enough to know that defeat is an inevitable experience at times. It is the manner of our play in this match together with Adams' spin that rankles so much ....

Took too long to type my last post!

Davies to be stranded on 98 not out?

Looks like good bowling conditions for Roland Jones - we need the sun to come out.

Corporal - more like the rain to chuck down!

jbd - welcome aboard.

Maynard gives his wicket away .... The white flags are being unfurled :flag:

I've turned my eye to watching if little James Taylor can get his first class average up to 50. (currently 49.47!)

This game is a write off for us...

Also, if you want to divert your attention away from the Surrey match, but still want to keep an eye on the cricket, I am seeing if Woakes can bat Warks out of a big hole against Durham, as well as Danny Briggs' efforts against Somerset.

Anything but the Surrey match basically!

Good to have jbd and Tibor on board to share the pain around. I am on beer drinking duties in a few minutes at our street party!

In keeping with your community spirit to volunteer for that, Corporal!

He's done it!

Taylor now averages 50 in f/c and list A, great prospect he is.

Oh, is the Surrey match still going on....

Cheer Guildford - hic!

Jordan bats well then throws it away. Jbd - Davies heading for his 98 no

Well at least he wasn't left stranded, Davies out for 94...

Crawling towards an innings defeat.

Well, Tibor, we have crawled there now! Dreadful team performance. Congratulations already conveyed to Lover on the Middlesex part of this site.

There is a members' cricket forum at the Oval next Thursday. Suggest Adams wears a hard helmet ....

Well today was as bad as I expected it to be, in fact this is exactly what I thought would happen at the end of day one. Very poor that we didn't even put up a fight but we definitely let the opposition get 100-150 too many and from there it was always an uphill struggle.

The main positives from the 3 games are Batty and Meaker's bowling figures (even though they haven't been 'match winning') and Maynard and De bruyn's batting. Unfortunately all of the good performances are sporadic and individual as shown by Maynard in the first innings and Davies in the second, along with Batty's bowling in Middlesex's innings.

Middlesex are in tremendous form,and with everything going for them ,Surrey were unfortunate to come up against them at such a time.
If I were you guys I'd not be too despondent,there are worst teams than Surrey in the division,and I'm pretty sure you'll be there or therabouts come Septermber,not so sure that Grizzly will be though!
Best of luck for the rest of the season.