SURREY VS HAMPSHIRE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Surrey have named a 14-man squad to travel to the Ageas Bowl to face Hampshire in the return of the Specsavers County Championship.
Morne Morkel could be in line for his red ball performance for Surrey    having played the last matches in the Royal London One-Day Cup while fellow seamer Matt Dunn is available again after recovering from a fractured rib.
Batsman Arun Harinath and bowler Mat Pillans are also in the squad and will hope to play their first Specsavers County Championship match of the season.
There is no place in the squad for Gareth Batty.
FULL SQUAD:
Rory Burns (captain)
Scott Borthwick
Rikki Clarke
Sam Curran
Jade Dernbach
Matt Dunn
Ben Foakes
Arun Harinath
Morne Morkel
Ryan Patel
Mat Pillans
Ollie Pope
Mark Stoneman
Amar Virdi

Have to say disappointed Jacks isn't in the squad as Harinth and Patel have both been in poor form.
So I'll go for Harinath ,Dunn and Pillans to miss out.
Over to you chaps  

Cheers Jimbob. Agree on Harinath and Pillans to miss out, I wonder whether Dunn might pip Dernbach though.

That was sneaky, JimBob! You got your edit in before I started my post! Anyway, I also reckon Batty will miss out. More seriously, I thought he would make the squad, if only to keep the option open about playing a second front line spinner.

It does seem odd that Jacks doesn't even make the squad. Possibly a case of making sure he keeps his feet on the ground? I don't know.

Definitely agree with you about Dunn missing out. At the forum meeting the other week, Stewie didn't think he would be back in contention until the match at Guildford. I do know though that MDV has been impressed with Dunn, having hardly seen him last year due to his injuries - ''like a new signing'', per Stewie.

I would expect Harinath to be on the bench as well. I'm surprised he makes the squad unless there are serious doubts over Stoneman's place.

Possibly Pillans might squeeze in for the last place ahead of Dernbach. I'm assuming Patel takes Elgar's spot.

Hopefully, Jimbo H will update us about the Hants line up.

PS I  saw Morkel bowling for the first time on Wednesday. Very impressed. If you get a chance, look at his opening wicket on the highlights - a juggled catch by Foakes following a ricochet from Jacks at second slip, quite something!

guildfordbat wrote:That was sneaky, JimBob! You got your edit in before I started my post!!

James100 wrote:Cheers Jimbob. Agree on Harinath and Pillans to miss out, I wonder whether Dunn might pip Dernbach though.

Hope not james with the controlled fast pace of Morkel there is no need for him.
Either way we will need the top 8 to score all the runs

Interesting to follow the score in Surrey 2nd XI 50 overs match. Sounds like another cracking innings from Jacks (90 off 87 balls). Tbf Harinath also scored half century in a century opening partnership. After that pretty much all the Surrey batsmen seem to be struggling.

I'd be sure Dunn will miss out, possibly also Pillans - although I might be tempted to go for him. Stoneman will be fortunate if plays, such is his dearth of runs at the moment.

Morning guys, from a Hampshire perspective we look very light on batting as Amla has left us because of a 'minor injury'. Replaced by Steyn. So we're looking at a 3 pace attack of Abbott, Steyn and Edwards (good English talent haha).

Alsop got injured in the week and Northeast is still out.

Will probably be something like:

Adams
Weatherley
Vince
Rossouw
Dawson
McManus
Berg
Abbott
Crane
Steyn
Edwards

Which is very light in batting but we haven't got much choice at the moment.

Thanks for the Hants update, Jimbo.

Yes, you do seem a bit light on batting with most from 6 onwards looking one place too high. Plenty of pace in that attack, mind you.

Surrey win toss and bat
Harinath Dunn and Pillans miss out

Will Stoneman ever score a run again?

Just back from the morning's shopping with Mrs Bat - the fun and excitement never stops, heh?

Not surprised by Stoneman's duck but what's Borthwick's run out about?

jimbohammers wrote:Morning guys, from a Hampshire perspective we look very light on batting as Amla has left us because of a 'minor injury'. Replaced by Steyn. So we're looking at a 3 pace attack of Abbott, Steyn and Edwards (good English talent haha).

Alsop got injured in the week and Northeast is still out.

Will probably be something like:

Adams
Weatherley
Vince
Rossouw
Dawson
McManus
Berg
Abbott
Crane
Steyn
Edwards

Which is very light in batting but we haven't got much choice at the moment.

I see that Brad Taylor (who wasn't in Hants' 14 man squad last night) comes into the team at the expense of Crane. As regards balance, that's probably not a bad call. Taylor is the same age as Crane and a handy off spinner (I saw him get Davies in a CC match a few years back when he was only 16 or 17) who is certainly the better bat. Anyway, I'll hand back to Jimbo H as this is his territory.

One other change from Jimbo's likely eleven. Ervine comes in for Dawson. Guess unwilling to take a chance on his recent injury, Jimbo?

Meanwhile, I rewound Churchy on commentary - the run out sounded terrible cricket.

Just to add - and following on from a point JimBob made yesterday - Hants now have Abbott at 9 whilst we have Dernbach. We'll need to get most of our runs before the 7th wicket falls!

sick and tired of silly run outs this season

shocking from Patel to get out to Taylor on day 1

152/3. Much improved from 1/2 off the first 5 balls but it could still go wrong from here. Burns is currently on 84, want 140 minimum and then Simon can start talking up his Test chances again.

100 partnership

50 for Foakes

100 for Burns

100 for Burns Vital innings. But still important he goes on further.

Currently 193/3. Could get 400+ and 5 batting points or still fold for under 300 and be up against it ....

1st batting point

Rain wins out for the day as stumps are called with Surrey on 216/3. Burns and Foakes undefeated with a ton and a fifty respectively.

We can feel satisfied with that, especially after such a poor and stupid start.

Fine partnership between Burns and Foakes gets us right back on track. Although Patel did not register a big score I guess he did a fair job in helping to steady the ship and see off the new ball.

With Dernbach at no 9 we're always a bit vulnerable to the innings imploding once we're into the middle order, but at least Sam Curran has recently started to clock up some useful time at the crease.

Good opening half-hour for Surrey as Burns and Foakes take the score on to 248/3. Plenty of overs left as well to get 5 batting points for JimBob.

Meanwhile, increasing calls - Dobell and MDV this time - for Burns to get called up for the Lions 4 dayer next month.

Burns goes for 151

and now Foakes

guildfordbat wrote:Good opening half-hour for Surrey as Burns and Foakes take the score on to 248/3. Plenty of overs left as well to get 5 batting points for JimBob.

Meanwhile, increasing calls - Dobell and MDV this time - for Burns to get called up for the Lions 4 dayer next month.

Guilford

baby face poor form continues

333 for 6 at lunch
think we can forget 400 now

and now pope left with the tail

jimbobgooner wrote:and now pope left with the tail

345/7. Maybe you should settle for 4 batting points now, JimBob!

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:and now pope left with the tail

345/7. Maybe you should settle for 4 batting points now, JimBob!

even that might be a struggle now

4th and final batting point reached

Morkel gets the nod over virdi

pope gone trying to hit a single off the last ball of the over

368 all out

jimbobgooner wrote:368 all out

Great recovery from 1/2 but very disappointing once we had reached 282/3. No real surprise that the late order and tail added little. At least, we've scored fairly briskly and left enough time - even with yesterday's rain - for a positive result.

Last 3 wickets fall for 4 runs.  As expected, the Surrey tail folds rapidly. Still 60 overs to go today.

Morkel not opening the bowling

If you're a Hampshire opener, you must be delighted to see Dernbach marking out his run up rather than Morkel

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Last 3 wickets fall for 4 runs.  As expected, the Surrey tail folds rapidly.  Still 60 overs to go today.  

I fully recognise that Virdi is in the Surrey side for his bowling and not his batting. I'm also certainly not putting all the blame for the failings of the tail on him. However, it would help his Test ambitions if his batting could improve. Either that or become a truly outstanding spin bowler. You certainly can't blame England for choosing another spinner who has similar ability with the ball if their choice has the likely potential to hit a 50.

Useful inroads by Clarke and Morkel have reduce Hants to 60 - 4.  Dernbach - who got the first wicket - is continuing to pick up the odd wickets here and there in the cc and bowling reasonably tightly.

Interesting that 11 wickets have so far fallen today. Wonder how the wicket is playing...?

Baby face strikes

Wow - Hants' innings implodes - lost last 5 wickts for 18 runs.  Must admit I didn't see that coming at all. From a couple of the early Hants wickets it did look as though there was a bit of swing.

I guess none of us thought that Rikki Clarke/Sam Curran's scores of 14/13 was that great a contribution - but they actually got as many runs as Hants' second and third highest scorers.

Excellent all round bowling performance.  Must admit I had a few doubts about the return of Rikki Clarke to Surrey towards tail end of his career, but he's been taking wickets very regularly.  Good too that Sam Curran - at least as far as his bowling is concerned - seems pretty much to have got over his indifferent last season.  Morkel is still a class act, and Dernbach seems to be bowling well enough in 4 day matches to be a genuine contender for a place.

Incredible collapse from Hampshire, albeit Jimbo did warn us in his pre match analysis of such a possibility!

Lot of work on for them to save the game now - looks very unlikely that anything but a Surrey win will occur now

A very good day. Only slight disappointment was the umpires deciding the light had deteriorated which prevented us having a few more overs at their openers tonight after enforcing the follow on.

Nothing ever guaranteed but we are strong favourites for another win.

*does rain dance*

54 - 2 as Virdi claims Vince, stumped by Foakes. Watched the clip on Twitter - still trying to work out what happened! Important wicket. Earlier Sam Curran had Adams LBW.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:54 - 2 as Virdi claims Vince, stumped by Foakes.  Watched the clip on Twitter - still trying to work out what happened!  Important wicket.  Earlier Sam Curran had Adams LBW.

Good stuff from Surrey. Although Hants aren't folding like yesterday, we're keeping it tight. Assuming Hants get that far, it'll be well into the third session today before they reach parity at the current rate. 104 overs today as well, we're still making up the overs lost on Saturday.

Stay patient, JimBob. I'll be very surprised if you are not enjoying a few drinks at the end of this game. I'm just not sure if that'll be tonight or tomorrow.

One more for Virdi before lunch, and Surrey are well on top now. Hants still 150 odd behind with 7 wickets left, and Vince back in the hutch