SURREY VS SOMERSET SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

New signing Theunis de Bruyn is in the 14-man squad to face Somerset in the 80th annual Guildford Festival starting tomorrow.
I'm sure Guildford and corporal have seen all of them
Full squad is as follows:
Rory Burns (captain)
Gareth Batty
Scott Borthwick
Rikki Clarke
Theunis de Bruyn
Jade Dernbach
Arun Harinath
Will Jacks
Morne Morkel
Ryan Patel
Mat Pillans
Ollie Pope
Mark Stoneman
Amar Virdi
Batty, Harinath and Pillans to miss out for me.
The tail is too long as it is so Jacks for extra security.
Over to you chaps

James100 wrote:Also - I went to the first two days of the Somerset games (my parents live in Guildford so doubled up visiting them with getting some cricket in). Everyone has mostly covered the positives, but the main negative for me was Virdi's evening spell on the second day. I don't know if he improved today, but that was a poor spell by any frontline spinner's standards, nevermind one looking for England honours. It was my first time seeing him bowl live so I was probably just unlucky in what I saw but it did at least temper my expectations somewhat.

'Fraid he looked pretty innocuous yesterday, too, James. 12 wicketless overs for 44 do not lie. Not sure there was much there for him, though. Once it warmed up the pitch looked pretty good, though our fast bowlers got lift and some movement from it. This kind of thing should, thank goodness, damp down all this woefully premature 'Virdi for England' nonsense. At his best, he IS a real talent but let him learn his craft fully at County level before he gets exposed at the highest level. If he has a good season from here, a Lions' tour could beckon but he's still very raw. PS S Borthwick's metamorphosis from England wannabe leggie to top order batsman took another step forward yesterday - where his first ball of a short spell landed threatened his own big toe more than it did the batsman facing him

Hi James, Simon and all - yeah, Virdi never got it fully right and failed to settle into a groove. A few too many loose and short deliveries. The worst I've seen him bowl. Particularly unfortunate for this to happen at Guildford where the fast outfield and short boundaries are unforgiving.

Hopefully just a blip although, as Simon suggests, it shows he's still some way off being the finished article. Tbf, we probably all knew that but it doesn't do any harm to be reminded of it and for expectations to be kept in check.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I should probably answer my own question!

I would go for;

Burns
Stoneman
Borthwick
Roy
Foakes
Pope
Curran S
Clarke
Curran T
Morkel
Virdi

This is assuming everyone is fit and on form. Guildford's second XI just shows the depth of bowling we have at the club, and some promising young batsmen in reserve too! And of course, stalwarts like the Baron himself

Back to the real cricket - a 21 point lead over 2nd in the county championship after 6 games is a very strong position - essentially a whole victory ahead and points ahead of everyone else

Olly - if you base it on all players being on form (as well as fit), that's probably the eleven I would go with. I was picking and justifying selection in my earlier post on actual and demonstrated CC form for this season only. By way of easy example, an on form Stoneman leads Harinath by some distance. However, that's not the case so far this season where Stoneman is averaging about 11 in all formats and hasn't reached 30.

Btw, in Churchy's interview with Rory Burns last night on Surrey twitter - the man in the cap lurking by the side much of the time is Spills.

Agree with comments on Virdi's bowling on the last day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Patel reverted to looking tidy but innocuous - classic fifth bowler who looks unthreaening but keeps things fairly tight while the main bowlers rest.

The impressive thing overall in the cc this season is the number of different Surrey bowlers who have taken turn turns to produce spells that either were or, could have been, match winning. Clarke (several), Morkel, Sam Curran, Virdi, and now Patel and Dernbach.