SURREY VS YORKSHIRE ROYAL SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

Surrey have named a 15-man squad    for the Specsavers County Championship trip to Yorkshire, starting at Scarborough on Monday.
Matt Dunn has been added to the 14 from the victory against somerset.
Mark Stoneman is part of the squad after missing the Guildford Festival for family reasons while spinner Gareth Batty is also up for selection.
FULL SQUAD:
Rory Burns (captain)
Gareth Batty
Scott Borthwick
Rikki Clarke
Theunis de Bruyn
Jade Dernbach
Matt Dunn
Arun Harinath
Will Jacks
Morne Morkel
Ryan Patel
Mat Pillans
Ollie Pope
Mark Stoneman
Amar Virdi
The only change I can see is rocky for Harinath or Jacks which will be harsh.
Over to you chaps

Well Surrey all out for 267, managed to put on some runs this morning with Pope finishing 69 not out and Morkel making a useful 29. Dernbach and Virdi only managing to face 3 balls between them is massively disappointing, I know he is a bowler primarily but if Virdi is to have serious international ambitions you'd think he's going to need to learn to at least block with the bat...

Yorkshire lead by 75 runs. Interesting day ahead

Must have the worse number 10 and 11 in the country

All out for 267. Not good but not too bad given where we started from this morning. A 2nd batting point and a deficit of 75.

Very good hand played by Pope for an undefeated 69 and a useful high 20 odd from Morkel before that. Sadly as feared and probably expected, Dernbach and Virdi combined played 3 balls for zilch.

I'll stay for now with my earlier post that IF (big if) we can get 'em all out for 170, we're in with a shout.

I think that leaves another 91 overs today.

jimbobgooner wrote:Must have the worse number 10 and 11 in the country

Quite probably.

Given the importance that England appear to attach to late order runs, Virdi's woeful batting may count against him getting a Test match opportunity.

I'm not saying that is necessarily right and I accept it's too early to be talking about him as a Test player but I do feel it may be the way that it becomes if his batting doesn't show some improvement.

Yorkshire two down within 4 overs, both Lees and Lyth back in the hutch - Morkel with both wickets, and the second one a stunning catch behind the stumps from Pope!

Game well and truly on

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Yorkshire two down within 4 overs, both Lees and Lyth back in the hutch - Morkel with both wickets, and the second one a stunning catch behind the stumps from Pope!

Game well and truly on

There was a wonderful comment on Yorks' White Rose forum last night referring to Stoneman and the 5 penalty runs given to Yorks as a result of his tantrum - ''It's good to have an opener who can score runs for Yorkshire!''.

PS Olly, I hadn't seen your earlier post when I posted my earlier one about our batting this morning. Great minds ... ok, similar minds.

guildfordbat wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Yorkshire two down within 4 overs, both Lees and Lyth back in the hutch - Morkel with both wickets, and the second one a stunning catch behind the stumps from Pope!

Game well and truly on

There was a wonderful comment on Yorks' White Rose forum last night referring to Stoneman and the 5 penalty runs given to Yorks as a result of his tantrum - ''It's good to have an opener who can score runs for Yorkshire!''.

PS Olly, I hadn't seen your earlier post when I posted my earlier one about our batting this morning. Great minds ... ok, similar minds.

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day"

As for the game, Yorkshire still just shading it with the runs they have on the board for me - but Surrey right back in it with an excellent 16 overs with the ball so far. Albeit Yorkshire fans will probably rightly point out, their batting begins now, with the way their top order has been playing this season!

Pujara clearly the key wicket now for the Rey.

In four innings against Surrey this season Lees has scored 5 runs. So yeah Stoneman has contributed that to our cause in a single knock.

yorkshire now 4 down - collapse well and truly on.

Pope batted superbly this morning. He really did exude international standard class imho. Decent effort from Morkel. Just a shame that due to a mixture of difficult batting conditions yesterday and some indifferent batting Surrey in effect wasted part of Pope's innings with him left high and dry. May be a case for shifting him a place up the order to no 4.

Dernbach gets Pujara LBW, no shot from Pujara...county umpires will often pull the trigger in that situation.

48/5 with a lead of 123. Yorkshire in serious danger of throwing away an excellent position here...

Morkel strikes in his first over back, Leaning gone and Yorkshire 70/6 with a lead of 145.

Bresnan and Tattersall in - and will have to pull off a similar partnership to their first innings effort to give Yorkshire a total of 250+ (which is surely the minimum they'd have been aiming for!)

A repeat of the first innings sadly

Surrey bowling very tightly and going past the edge on many occasions, been impressed by Virdi's use of flight and pace in his spell so far - unlucky to not have a wicket so far.

Would imagine the spell of Morkel post tea break will be crucial.

For those listening on the stream - who is on right now? Constantly saying Patel is bowling his first over (it's not, it's his second) - and getting fielding positions wrong. Very unprofessional

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:For those listening on the stream - who is on right now? Constantly saying Patel is bowling his first over (it's not, it's his second) - and getting fielding positions wrong. Very unprofessional

Apart from churchy can't stand the rest

5 wkts for morkel

so frustrating not being able to get the last two wkts

228 runs to win the game - excellent fight back with the ball today, hopefully the batsmen can finish it off - not an easy chase

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:228 runs to win the game - excellent fight back with the ball today, hopefully the batsmen can finish it off - not an easy chase

Alec Stewart was chatting to Jonny Barran on the stream mid afternoon. He suggested a target under 200 would make us favourites whilst it would be Yorks if above 250. Nicely in the middle to make it even more compelling.

Good chat from Stewie. He was saying how keen Morkel was to improve his own batting and that he wants a first-class ton before he calls it a day.

Btw, Olly, agree with you about Virdi. He bowled well today for no reward. Much better than last week at Guildford.

According to cricinfo, we'll have 25 overs* to bat tonight. Going to be a late one!

* Before JimBob says it - assuming we're not bowled out before that.

Headed over to the White Rose forum on the back of Guildford's comment, and enjoyed the post from one poster saying

"Mark Stoneman has scored more runs for Yorkshire against Surrey this season than Alex Lees has in 4 innings!"

Spills chatting on the stream now.

Magnificent 50 for Rory Burns - a pleasure to watch so far, some cracking drives. Go big Rory and make those selectors listen!

Day ends on 89/0.

As Jonny Barran said on stream shortly before the close, ''the stuff of dreams''.

A quite superb day's play from Surrey to put us in with a real chance of a victory that seemed highly unlikely. And that despite having by far the worst of the conditions for batting.

I didn't see a lot of the live stream today - but I did see most of Surrey's batting first thing, when what struck was just how impressive Pope was.  Then later on I caught a number of overs fairly early in Surrey's second innings and, to be fair to Yorks, there was a good deal of playing and missing by both Burns and Stoneman when facing Brooks and Coad, with Stoneman pretty fortunate not to edge the ball with some wild flashing shots.

One of the many things that's impressive about Rory Burns' batting these days is that he really can move the scoring rate along when the ball's there to be hit.

Stoneman finally makes it past 30 - a real bonus. I must say I'd have selected Harinath in his place but maybe he will repay Surrey's faith that he would come good.

I'm likely to be out when Surrey win or, alternatively Dernbach and Virdi are bowled for ducks with succesive deliveries with only three runs required.  So I'll leave the key to bar with Guildford so everyone can drown sorrows or celebrate as appropriate!

Superb from Surrey today....my optimism last night was not entirely misplaced

Pretty much the perfect day for Surrey - not a foregone conclusion that they win, especially if the sea mist returns at some point, but it would take a stellar performance from Yorks to win from here.

Good to see Stoneman get some runs - had some luck along the way (Dropped at slip off Lyth), but he began to look more like his old self as the day went on. Burns was magnificent, lets hope he can make a three figure score tomorrow

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:A quite superb day's play from Surrey to put us in with a real chance of a victory that seemed highly unlikely. And that despite having by far the worst of the conditions for batting.

I didn't see a lot of the live stream today - but I did see most of Surrey's batting first thing, when what struck was just how impressive Pope was.  Then later on I caught a number of overs fairly early in Surrey's second innings and, to be fair to Yorks, there was a good deal of playing and missing by both Burns and Stoneman when facing Brooks and Coad, with Stoneman pretty fortunate not to edge the ball with some wild flashing shots.

One of the many things that's impressive about Rory Burns' batting these days is that he really can move the scoring rate along when the ball's there to be hit.

Stoneman finally makes it past 30 - a real bonus.  I must say I'd have selected Harinath in his place but maybe he will repay Surrey's faith that he would come good.

I'm likely to be out when Surrey win or, alternatively Dernbach and Virdi are bowled for ducks with succesive deliveries with only three runs required.  So I'll leave the key to bar with Guildford so everyone can drown sorrows or celebrate as appropriate!

Now that is dangerous!

You're spot on about Burns being able to move the score on.

Tbf, Stoneman wouldn't have been in my team either but he was due some luck. Hopefully this knock will continue tomorrow and get him back on track.

PS Is Stoneman Chichester's other half? I noticed they both had a birthday yesterday!

guildfordbat wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Hopefully the final three can stick around with Pope this morning, taking an hour out of the game this AM along with adding another 30-40 runs could be crucial in terms of saving the game.

Very much so. Some time taken out plus a minimum of 31 runs for a 2nd batting point would be handy.

Allow me to briefly step out of character for a moment though and go all optimistic (it's the alcohol fumes from Chichester's post! ). The one thing that shouldn't be overlooked is that Yorks will still have to put some runs on the board in their second dig. If we could get them all out for, say, 170 that might leave us under 250 for the win which could be doable. I appreciate that's pushing things and there are several ''ifs'' involved but I've probably seen more ludicrous posts on this board!

Today should be a long day. Subject to there not being any more bl**dy sea mist, I think there'll be 104 overs (an extra 8 as more than that was lost yesterday).

Anyway, Day 3. Moving Day.

Along with myself, Moving Day was always a favourite of the much missed King Carlos. Just in case he should be looking in, I'll particularly flag these comments for his enjoyment as well as the rest of the Surrey mafia. From Morne Morkel talking to BBC Radio London tonight:
''We spoke on Tuesday and said it was important for us to arrive switched on. Day three is 'moving day' in four-day cricket and to have a day like that shows the quality of this team.''
He continued:
''I was lucky to get the rewards today, but Jade Dernbach has been exceptional in this game and things haven't gone his way.
There's a lot of maturity in this attack and it makes my job quite easy. If we keep it simple and keep doing the basics right, I predict good things for this bowling unit.''

  Is Stoneman Chichester's other half? I noticed they both had a birthday yesterday!

[/quote]

Hi GB...you know the phrase ‘hiding one’s light under a bushel’ ...sadly doesn’t apply to me! However it would appear that my wife shares a birthday with Stoneman! Actually as others have said...really really pleased for Stoneman after a torrid few months...he may not be international class..but he’s a good pro...and I am sure he will come good again....and his contribution thus far could be absolutely crucial....looks like the fret could be back tomorrow which may make things tricky.... The signing of Morkel has been significant. But the success of the home grown has been fantastic to see....

As mentioned above, looks likely there will be fair amount of low cloud and/or mist today, so it's very possible that we may have unpleasant batting conditions similar to those Surrey had to endure on day 2. If so, then we may have additional cause to be grateful to Burns and Stoneman for knocking off just over one third of the required runs - at a fair rate - in the more sunny conditions of yesterday evening.

The picture posted on the Surrey twitter shows the mist has cleared

First half hour has passed, Stoneman departed LBW but Burns has moved onto 75* as Surrey need 118 with 9 wickets left

Oh Rory you plonker, climbed into a short wide one from Bresnan...but picked out the one man out at deep point to go for 97 - a brilliant innings, which deserved three figures

Surrey need 81 to win, not quite there just yet...

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:
...

I'm likely to be out when Surrey win or, alternatively Dernbach and Virdi are bowled for ducks with succesive deliveries with only three runs required.  So I'll leave the key to bar with Guildford so everyone can drown sorrows or celebrate as appropriate!

A few wobbles over the course of the four days but in the end an excellent and convincing 7 wicket win with some very strong individual performances.

The bar is open and actually has been since 1 o'clock. Well, I had to check that the Corporal had given me the right key!

Well, that was a quite superb team performance! Plenty of eye catching performances through the line up from individuals (but also important not to forget the more modest but still useful innings by Patel and The Brain Mk II with their 30s when batting was difficult on day 2).

We'll have to see what the table looks like later on this evening - Worcs have lot to do to try and salavage the draw against second place Notts, and it's possible that the Essex/Somerset match could end in a positive result after an Essex declaration.  Somerset look as though they are giving it a go.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Well, that was a quite superb team performance! Plenty of eye catching performances through the line up from individuals (but also important not to forget the more modest but still useful innings by Patel and The Brain Mk II with their 30s when batting was difficult on day 2).

We'll have to see what the table looks like later on this evening - Worcs have lot to do to try and salavage the draw against second place Notts, and it's possible that the Essex/Somerset match could end in a positive result after an Essex declaration.  Somerset look as though they are giving it a go.

Good spots, Corporal.

Patel's contribution wasn't eye catching like last week at Guildford - tbf, that was probably a once in a lifetime performance - but he still played his part in this game. He may go back to being a squad member when more are available to us but he's shown he's more than a decent fill in.

All other Division One matches were drawn to strengthen our place at the summit.

Top win and we have a real stranglehold on the top of the table now too - basically a whole win in terms of points ahead of the next side, and they have played a game more than us. Crucial that we come away from Trent Bridge in our next CC game with at least a draw, to keep that gap to Notts...

As for this game - Dernbach continues to impress with the red ball. Surrey have some really tough choices to make when the Currans return!

Real.shame that Burns was unable to make the ton.

Surrey now from runners for the title, Yorkshire sliding towards the relegation trap door.

LT - your post prompted me to look at cc Div 1 batting averages for Yorkshire. I knew they weren't great - but they're actually abysmal! No Yorks' regular is averaging as high as 34 (Bairstow averages 45 over two matches):

Harry Brook 33.9
Ballance 33.6
Tattersall 30.2 (two matches only)
Leaning 30
Bresnan 22.9
Lyth 22.4
Root 18 (two matches only)
Pujara 14.3
Lees 6.2

Wonder what's gone so badly wrong!? In seasons past Lyth for example was more or less a run machine....

Well, top order batting has been pretty rubbish for a few seasy now. Pretty sure that for the last two seasons average first inning score at 4 wickets down was under 100.