SURREY vs SOMERSET SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

SURREY HAVE NAMED A 13 MAN SQUAD FOR THIS WEEK’S RETURN TO THE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP – A CLASH WITH SOMERSET IN TAUNTON..
Kumar Sangakkara and Ravil Rampaul are at the Cpl so Aaron Finch makes his first county championship appearance.
There is no place in the squad for either Jade Dernbach or Conor McKerr.
FULL SURREY SQUAD
Gareth Batty (captain)
Scott Borthwick
Rory Burns
Rikki Clarke
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Aaron Finch
Ben Foakes
Stuart Meaker
Ollie Pope
Mark Stoneman
Jason Roy
Amar Virdi
Probably his holiness and Virdi to miss out
Over to you chaps

I'd agree - Pope and Virdi likely to miss out, though Taunton has been spin friendly in recent times.

Oh look Meaker with a wicket first ball....

If only we'd have bowled him yesterday....

As James says, Taunton has been spin friendly in recent times. I don't know anything about the wicket for this match but am slightly surprised that Surrey leave Virdi on the bench whilst Somerset play Leach and Bess.

At the moment it looks like we should have played virdi instead of baby face

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Oh look Meaker with a wicket first ball....

If only we'd have bowled him yesterday....

And still being under bowled today - only 6 overs so far. Batty really doesn't seem to rate him (hence, I guess, the McKerr selections).

Meanwhile the Currans are each going at 4.5 an over without having taken any wickets.

strange times at the rey

Hi guys - anyone got an update on McKerr? I know he hasn't played for Surrey for a little while but don't know if he's made any of our recent squads, is injured or out on loan again. Subject to anything you chaps might say, I feel it would have been best for all parties if he had stayed at Derbys for another month or two.Cheers.

Meanwhile, a disappointing teatime scorecard at Taunton. Probably no great surprise that Abell and my old mucker Davies who both have been unable to score for toffee this season are in the runs.

mckerr is playing for the XI this week Guildford

jimbobgooner wrote:mckerr is playing for the XI this week Guildford

Cheers, JimBob. Should have read up more on the club website before posting.

Still think everyone would have been better off with him staying longer at Derbys but that's probably the least of our problems atm!

Pleased that Clarke and Meaker open the bowling on day 2 and even more pleased that each get another wicket in the first hour. Abell and Allenby both caught behind. We've appeared too formulaic in nearly always turning to the Currans to start things off.

Meanwhile, Davies moves in sight of a century ....

that's steve davies who has a average of 19.71 this year

jimbobgooner wrote:that's steve davies who has a average of 19.71 this year

Along with Dom Bess who made his highest first class score and maiden 50.

3 bowling points but still appears pretty poor from a Surrey perspective. Haven't studied any recent stats but get the impression that the Currans are off the boil whilst Batty's captaincy doesn't exactly seem inspiring. Mentioned on the Supporters' Club 'Wallpaper' site that we were no balled for having 3 fielders behind square on the leg side - just 1 ball and 2 runs but nonetheless sloppy and unprofessional which seems to sum us up atm.

Batsmen 10 and 11 get Somerset to 400 and 5 batting points. Think they had 11 from their previous 8 matches.

42 partnership so far

solid start 50 up

burns out

jimbobgooner wrote:burns out

Seems that was a right c*ck up after a good start with the bat.

Meanwhile, to Stoneman who has now scored exactly 1,000 first class runs this season. In a disappointing season to date, his signing at least has been an excellent one.

Oh dear - pretty poor couple of days so far.  Best we can hope for really is to get at least four, preferably 5, batting points and come away with a draw. Looks likely that a fair chunk of play will be lost tomorrow due to rain. I would surmise all the morning's play as a minimum will be lost - and maybe more.

Guildford - did you catch the Graeme Smith comments on Test match radio commentary where he was huffing and puffing about Philander not being available enough due to his injury/fitness problems.  Thought you would have enjoyed that!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Oh dear - pretty poor couple of days so far.  Best we can hope for really is to get at least four, preferably 5, batting points and come away with a draw. Looks likely that a fair chunk of play will be lost tomorrow due to rain. I would surmise all the morning's play as a minimum will be lost - and maybe more.

Guildford - did you catch the Graeme Smith comments on Test match radio commentary where he was huffing and puffing about Philander not being available enough due to his injury/fitness problems.  Thought you would have enjoyed that!

Ha ha! No, I didn't. Probably just as well.

looking like the weather has saved Somerset

jimbobgooner wrote:looking like the weather has saved Somerset  

Stuck in the drop zone, the Cidermen desperately need a win. I just wonder if Abell might offer Batty a deal to try and manufacture a positive result.

Say, gift us 80+ runs in the opening hour with 14 overs of easy slow bowling. We then declare and Somerset forfeit their second innings leaving us a target of around 280 from 80 overs.

Not very likely but not an impossible scenario. In Batty's place and the two teams' respective positions in the table, I would at least consider that although nothing less generous.

I'm not sure but don't think that would contravene any match fixing regulations. Anyone know??

All this assumes we get a full day tomorrow. Forecast looks good, just hope today's rain doesn't hold up the start. Even without a deal on the table, we could do with the bonus points. Two batting points and a draw will take us up to fourth in the table - that's not brilliant but it's not too bad and means Batty can afford to walk away from anything but a good offer.

guildfordbat wrote:

Say, gift us 80+ runs in the opening hour with 14 overs of easy slow bowling. We then declare and Somerset forfeit their second innings leaving us a target of around 280 from 80 overs.

Not very likely but not an impossible scenario. In Batty's place and the two teams' respective positions in the table, I would at least consider that although nothing less generous.

I'm not sure but don't think that would contravene any match fixing regulations. Anyone know??

Over the years all manner of contrived declaration arrangements have been made... Indeed, did not Hants offer Somerset (on the face of it) a very generous 4th innings declaration chase. Somerset promptly collapsed in a heap.

Don't think trying to get a positive result counts as match fixing. No doubt cricketing and betting authorities would look closely at an unusually generous declaration combined with suspicious betting patterns!

Thanks, Corporal. That was my line of thinking although I wasn't sure these days.

Don't know whether the captains spoke about a deal but clear that nothing was agreed. Surrey continue where they left off with Somerset giving no freebies. Unless Surrey mess up massively and manage to lose 19 wickets in the day, today should be all about bonus points for the two sides before hands are shaken on the draw.

So far - Rocky reaches 50 whilst Borthwick goes cheaply. Neither a surprise.

I agree with no deal - for me get as many bonus points as possible and get outta here with a draw

Maybe not too many bonus points for Surrey and even the draw not yet guaranteed as we tumble to 145/4. Roy and Rocky out in successive overs to Somerset's spinners.

183-5 at lunch. Draw is nailed on, just a case of whether we can get any bonus points with the bat. We do actually bat all the way to 11 (Meaker is not the bunny Footitt was!), so 250-300 should be doable...

284-7 at tea - good session for Surrey, unlikely to get the 350 batting point but 300 will be secured. Clarke impressing this game

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:284-7 at tea - good session for Surrey, unlikely to get the 350 batting point but 300 will be secured. Clarke impressing this game

Yep, go along with that.

As the Corporal said on the general Surrey thread, Clarke should be a decent signing as long as he's still got sufficient hunger. Should bring greater balance as well as enabling a Curran to be rotated from time to time. Not too upset about Sibley going the other way. He had plenty of chances in the Championship but rarely seemed capable of getting out of first gear or, apart from ''the 200 as a schoolboy'' knock, properly going on. My overriding ambition is for us to win the Championship - I could never envisage us doing that with Sibley being a regular member of the side. We will though need another and a better batsman.

Back to this match - not sure but believe we are behind with our over rate on Somerset's first innings. If so, Batty and Borthwick may need to send a few down late on to redress the balance.

3rd and final batting point reached

guildfordbat wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:284-7 at tea - good session for Surrey, unlikely to get the 350 batting point but 300 will be secured. Clarke impressing this game

Yep, go along with that.

As the Corporal said on the general Surrey thread, Clarke should be a decent signing as long as he's still got sufficient hunger. Should bring greater balance as well as enabling a Curran to be rotated from time to time. Not too upset about Sibley going the other way. He had plenty of chances in the Championship but rarely seemed capable of getting out of first gear or, apart from ''the 200 as a schoolboy'' knock, properly going on. My overriding ambition is for us to win the Championship - I could never envisage us doing that with Sibley being a regular member of the side. We will though need another and a better batsman.

Back to this match - not sure but believe we are behind with our over rate on Somerset's first innings. If so, Batty and Borthwick may need to send a few down late on to redress the balance.

I echo your thoughts on Sibley - my frustrations with him on here have been well documented! In my opinion the Baron is a better batsman than him now, but Sibley was playing on his "potential" - so in the short term I think we will be ok. It is as you say, how we replace him, that will be the challenge. I think we're going to need two senior batsmen to come in over the winter - as I'd like to see us use the overseas slot on a bowler or all rounder.

another stupid out

follow on avoided

7 needed off 3 overs for an unlikely 4th batting point

6 needed off 2 overs

meaker stumped: 5 runs short

jimbobgooner wrote:meaker stumped: 5 runs short

Yeah, annoying but questions most need to be asked of the seven batsmen who reached 20 but failed to make 40.

Sounds like a rather desultory batting performance, redeemed to a fair extent by some useful runs in the lower order. Certainly tail looks a good deal more likely to produce runs with Tom Curran, Batty and Meaker at 9, 10, 11. Frustrating in the end that we narrowly missed out on another batting point - not the first time that's happened this season.

Essex the runaway leaders - Surrey really could do with a win to consolidate their position and regain momentum which seems long since to have evaporated in this competition. At the moment both Warks and Somerset have ground to make up - although both have shown some improved form they are very vulnerable if they have next match or two rained off.

Dobell in his last day report on cricinfo refers to MDV regarding Michell Marsh as ''a leading option'' for overseas player in 2018. I would be far from convinced by that.

guildfordbat wrote:Dobell in his last day report on cricinfo refers to MDV regarding Michell Marsh as ''a leading option'' for overseas player in 2018. I would be far from convinced by that.

Oh good god no