SURREY VS WARWICKSHIRE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

And we're back
SURREY HAVE NAMED A THIRTEEN-MAN SQUAD FOR THE FIRST MATCH OF THE 2017 SUMMER – A SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASH AGAINST WARWICKSHIRE AT THE KIA OVAL.
Both Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick are set to make their County Championship debuts for the club, with Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara also included in a Surrey squad for the first time this season.
There is also a wealth of choice in seam bowling options with five quick bowlers – Tom Curran, Sam Curran, Mark Footitt, Stuart Meaker and Jade Dernbach – all vying for a spot in the final eleven.
There is no place in the squad for Arun Harinath, Ollie Pope,Matt Dunn or Amar virdi
Full Surrey Squad:
Gareth Batty (captain)
Zafar Ansari
Scott Borthwick
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Jade Dernbach
Ben Foakes (WK)
Mark Footitt
Stuart Meaker
Kumar Sangakkara
Dominic Sibley
Mark Stoneman
The big decision will be will the captain step down for this one?
Over to you chaps

chichestersurryfan wrote:[quote="guildfordbat"

Currently 392/4 with 30 mins to lunch. Should be looking for 500+ from here. That would be top notch but I repeat that getting 20 wickets won't be a piece of cake.

.  

Sorry GB couldn't resist quoting that  job only half done but what a day for the lads[/quote]

Chichester - in the words of former Surrey and England captain Peter May, ''It is a fascination of cricket that one is always learning.''

I only hope that I too can learn. I've never denied the need and certainly not tonight.

In mitigation as to what I posted earlier, we didn't impose ourselves enough in the morning session (Sibley especially) and were then in too much of a rush to make up time in the afternoon as we threw wickets away rashly. I also didn't have an inkling that Footitt would be so totally devastating. He bowled magnificently and I really mean that. Accuracy with pace and bounce. Did Bell like a kipper with one that rose on him and went away. Very well supported by Borthwick pouching everything that came his way. Maybe I'm still in denial but I actually believe it's still a decent track.

We've had experience on many an occasion in the last few years of the length and quality of Warks' batting.   On the other hand, scoring on this pitch seems to have been surprisingly difficult (after the first session on day 1).  

Let's hope we can make regular break throughs tomorrow. We do have six potential bowlers so there shouldn't be a need to overwork any of them.

Were there any noteworthy nuggets falling out of the forum yesterday lunchtime?

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Were there any noteworthy nuggets falling out of the forum yesterday lunchtime?

Meant to post about this last night but fell asleep watching Middlesbrough at the end of MotD and that was that!

The most interesting thing for me was Alec Stewart's comments about Borthwick's bowling and I've covered that on the 'England v West Indies' thread.

As the season had only just started and we were doing well in the current match, there were less questions and grumbles for Stewie to deal with than usual. I had set myself up to ask about Borthwick but as that was covered in Stewie's opening comments, I contented myself with mouthing 'Happy Birthday' to which he responded with a smile and a thumbs up!

The importance of the squad was emphasised by Stewie. He just about said that the squad chosen for a match is the team, not just the final eleven picked. Arising from that, he emphasised (twice) how well Meaker and Ansari had taken the decision to be left out. Stewie acknowledged that 'Dernbach's selection might have surprised some of you' but went on to say how well he had bowled in the pre-season games. [I saw Spills before the start of play who said the same about Dernbach which is why he tipped him to play in the Surrey Ad.] As for Ansari, 'we were only ever going to play one spinner in this game' and thus it was a straight choice between him and Batty. Stewie suggested that Batty had offered to stand down but 'the management' wanted him included, referring to the number of left-handed batsmen in the match creating opportunities for where Batty would pitch the ball. Didn't totally follow that and wasn't convinced it was the major reason.

Stewie also commented expressly that he regarded the signings of Stoneman and Borthwick as 'an improvement' on Davies and Wilson whom they were replacing. He wasn't being disparaging about the latter two but just saying it straight as he sees it (and probably all of us do too).

Dunn was troubled by back and (?) hamstring problems much of last season but 'touch wood' is now ok. The plan is for him to play for the seconds over the next month to establish his fitness, get rhythm and then be in contention for a first team place.

Stewie also spoke very highly of the new Fitness coach, Rob someone.

Chief Executive Richard Gould spoke about the franchise Twenty20 proposals. The Club are willing to be part of it but really want to play under their own name which doesn't seem possible. Bit of a Mexican stand off atm as the ECB will want our ground and our players to be part of it. Gould is also concerned that a disproportionately high number of Surrey players would be drafted into it, leaving us with a weaker team for the county games being played at the same time. Gould understands that the ECB want to attract new followers but is concerned that losing existing members isn't the way to start. Case of watch this space.

Olly and all - can you get match day highlights this season like the ECB did them last year? Thanks.

Thanks for the update, Guildford.   

Two early wickets - the openers both falling, to Sam Curran and Dernbach.  Now we're into the tough business of the day - the Warks middle order!

guildfordbat wrote:Olly and all - can you get match day highlights this season like the ECB did them last year? Thanks.

Hi guildford,

Thanks for the info from the forum, informative as always. Hope all is well.

For the last few seasons the ECB have put some highlights on YouTube from games around the county game. They started off as the old fashioned 1 camera from each end shots which a few counties would personally upload and the ECB would post cut together highlights from around the county scene.

It was very sporadic and seem quite disjointed though - to be honest it seemed like a few counties were keen on the idea and others not so.

As the seasons have gone the number of grounds covered and number of cameras at each ground have increased. As that's happened the ECB have started uploading seperate day 1, 2, 3 and 4 highlights of games as the season goes by. They have also started cutting highlights packages of 100s and five-fers together to give a bit more publicity (a poor choice of word there but it's a Sunday!) to county players who are putting in top performances.

Similar to the freely available Premiership Rugby highlights you can get online they are often uploaded a couple of days after the action they are showing though.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ecbcricket

That's the ECB YouTube page that they upload them from. Scrolling through it the playlists they have for Div 1 2016 and Div 2 2016 are still all there. There's close to 500 videos between them from the County Championship alone as well which is more than I thought they'd covered.   To the ECB on that front. They are yet to start uploading videos for this season though, hopefully they will come over the next few days.

GB's comments about it being difficult to take 20 wickets in 3 days on this pitch are looking a bit more prophetic this lunchtime....but no need to panic just yet!!!

guildfordbat wrote:Olly and all - can you get match day highlights this season like the ECB did them last year? Thanks.

If you go onto Surrey's Youtube page, there is highlights from each days play on there - mainly just wickets tbf

Footitt picks up Bell - 140-3 - apparently a screamer from Borthwick, Church says make sure you catch the highlights for that!

Dernbach picks up his 2nd - this time Hain LBW for 3 - Warks still trail by 209 runs, with 6 wickets left

5 down

6 down

chichestersurryfan wrote:GB's comments about it being difficult to take 20 wickets in 3 days on this pitch are looking a bit more prophetic this lunchtime....but no need to panic just yet!!!

Working at home and in the garden today - 3 days at the cricket on the reel would have pushed it too much for Mrs Bat! Still just about keeping up with the scores and hope to be celebrating tonight in the officers' mess - refurbished over the winter, Corporal?

I took some comfort from this comment at the end of play yesterday from Warks coach Jim Troughton on cricinfo - ''I still think it's a pretty decent track.'' That doesn't mean my views on the wicket were right but at least I'm not alone.

Anyway, just going from the scores and a little bit of Churchy, Warks have batted better today but they're surely now only delaying the inevitable. How the Bears must wish Trott and Bell could have produced today's efforts yesterday.

PS Thanks, Carlos and Olly for comments about highlights. Just found days 1 and 2 of the Warks game on Surrey Youtube. Had expected the club to be flagging these on their website following the match reports.

Not for the first time Ronnie proving to be a nuisance to Surrey. He's so far faced over 80 balls in his undefeated 27 and put on 70 odd with Trott. More importantly, they've used up nearly 30 overs.

No need to panic but it's playing havoc with opening time for the Corporal!

indeed GB...partnership about 100! I think we can say your comments about the difficulty of taking 20 wickets on this pitch have been fully vindicated! As you say, no need to panic... but I don't think the Corporal will be opening the bar tonight....and we could well end up with a tricky sort of run chase later on tomorrow the way things are going...

Looking like we'll have to bat again...shouldn't be anything we can't chase however!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Looking like we'll have to bat again...shouldn't be anything we can't chase however!

Yeah, not worried but am a bit frustrated.

Have to believe that the remaining Warks wickets will fall fairly quickly once we get one of these two.

Christ imagine if we lose this now

Right on cue Nora strikes

And it's goodnight from him!

Ronnie falls lbw to Batty.

One more and we might even have the extra half-hour. Stay on stand by, Corporal!

Blimey, that was a hard day's work but we should get the reward in the morning.

Have to applaud Trott for his determination and concentration. Doing that and scoring 140 odd not out when your team has already as good as lost is a real achievement.

All in all, the runs scored by us on day 1 and by Warks today show how incredibly well Footitt bowled yesterday.

Frustrating, but look at the big picture. They are 40 odd behind with three 2nd innings wickets left. I'd have settled for that when they were 30-0 in their first knock yesterday.

Given their non-existent tail and Trott being in one his impregnable moods, it's far from a done deal. But they'll have to play extraordinarily well - probably even better than today - to save this, or even...

...jimbob @ 5pm: don't even go there

Right - well it didn't take a genius to predict that Warks would show more application second time round, and tbf Footitt's spell yesterday was one of those rare ones where everything works like a dream.

Let's hope we can drive home the advantage early in play tomorrow morning and so turn our attention to weightier matters of this season's selection of real ales at the bar!

Brilliant catch by Borthwick - well worth watching a few times.

Ok - not just for the Surrey mafia but anyone looking in.

What time today will the match finish?

With an element of optimism, I'm going for 11:56.

As JimBob says, over to you chaps.

guildfordbat wrote:Ok - not just for the Surrey mafia but anyone looking in.

What time today will the match finish?

With an element of optimism, I'm going for 11:56.

As JimBob says, over to you chaps.

12.49

I was too pessimistic!   11:55 and an innings victory. Off to the bar, Corporal!

Missed the final act as I had to clear a blocked drain outside the officers' mess!  But the bar is now open for a quick half or two...    Pleased that Tom Curran picked up four in the innings - should boost his confidence.  Can hardly believe Surrey beat Warks by an innings in first match of season - had got used to the first few matches of the season being somewhere on the spectrum of dismal/dire!

Up the Rey!

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Stoneman known as rocky anyone know the reason why?

Hi JimBob - all to do with rock and stones, sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping he was the body double for Sly Stallone in the later Rocky films.

Interesting to hear Batty say he may have to miss out for the Lancashire game. Never change a winning team they say

guildfordbat wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Looking like we'll have to bat again...shouldn't be anything we can't chase however!

Yeah, not worried but am a bit frustrated.

Have to believe that the remaining Warks wickets will fall fairly quickly once we get one of these two.

Good prediction GB!...its probably stating the obvious but without that brilliant spell from Footit, we may have struggled to take those 20 wickets as you said...great performance from the team and just a little bit of payback for last September at Lords...