surrey vs Worcestershire match thread

[jimbobgooner]

First topic message reminder :

Chris Adams has named a twelve man squad for the LV=County Championship match against Worcestershire at the Kia Oval.
Jacques Rudolph has been withdrawn from the squad for this match due to family reasons.
The Surrey squad for the LV=County Championship match against Worcestershire on Thursday 19th April, Friday 20th April, Saturday 21st April and Sunday 22nd April:
Rory Hamilton-Brown (capt)
Steven Davies (wkt)
Mark Ramprakash
Zander de Bruyn
Tom Maynard
Jason Roy
Chris Jordan
Gareth Batty
Jon Lewis
Stuart Meaker
Tim Linley
Jade Dernbach
with no rudolph avaliable i would expect river to go back to opener unless roy gets the short straw
if roy does open i would leave out river

[guildfordbat]

[quote="Corporalhumblebucket"]Meaker falls for 19 having faced 51 balls. That was probably as good as we could reasonably have expected.....[/quote
We sure could have done with 19 off 51 from him this time last week!

[Corporalhumblebucket]

Dernbach hits a four.....

[Corporalhumblebucket]

Dernbach hits a 6

[packofwolves]

Jones gets the wicket. He's perhaps not got the praise he deserves for his start to the season, having been outshone somewhat by Rico. Jones has got 11 wickets so far this year, including 6-34 against Notts. By no means the finished article, but hopefully this is the start of a good year for the lad.

[jimbobgooner]

Morning guildford I wonder if we have enough to win this or not?

[guildfordbat]

Jones gets the wicket. He's perhaps not got the praise he deserves for his start to the season, having been outshone somewhat by Rico. Jones has got 11 wickets so far this year, including 6-34 against Notts. By no means the finished article, but hopefully this is the start of a good year for the lad.

Pack - don't really know Jones but he should get an opportunity this season.

I saw your other seamer Lucas bowl for Northants in the opening game at the Oval last season. He was preferred to Jack Brooks which surprised me. He didn't do much in that match and soon lost his place in the Northants team. Not fair to judge him just on that but .... well, .... don't envisage him being another Rico.

[Corporalhumblebucket]

Partnership up to 20... They want to make someone pay for the failure in the last match....

[guildfordbat]

Morning guildford I wonder if we have enough to win this or not?

Hi JimBob - I think we have enough runs. Concerned we won't have enough time to bowl Worcs out ....

[Corporalhumblebucket]

Dernbach 22* - not very often he gets past 20....

[packofwolves]

Surrey all out 224. Lucas takes the final wicket incidentally, to finish with 3-66.
Worcester will need 246 to win. Surrey are favourites for me, but if Worcester start well then who knows.

Guildford - I think that Lucas was signed mainly for the experience he offers. Our seam department in general is young and inexperienced. We have a young left armer, Jack Shantry, who I think will benefit greatly from having Lucas around to learn from. It's quite possible that Lucas won't figure all that much in four day cricket once Mongoose is back to full fitness.

[Corporalhumblebucket]

All out. Still last 4 wickets put on over 90 this morning....

[guildfordbat]

Good runs from the tail as well as support to Hyphen.

Numbers 8 to 11 each scored at least 19 and added a combined total of 84. Very valuable, particularly at this time of such low scores.

[jimbobgooner]

Drink carrier has said on his twitter account that he says meaks will be the best bowler in the world within 3 years.I don't know if he's tongue was firmly in his cheek or he really meant it

[guildfordbat]

Drink carrier has said on his twitter account that he says meaks will be the best bowler in the world within 3 years.I don't know if he's tongue was firmly in his cheek or he really meant it

He definitely means it. Whether he's right is another matter but it's not a ludicrous shout!

[jimbobgooner]

I wonder why he hasn't opened the bowling?

[Corporalhumblebucket]

I was watching highlights of yesterday's play on Surrey website. Streaker certainly looked pretty rapid insofar as you you can tell from that.....

Jimbob - I think he has a habit of spraying the new ball round rather a lot...

[jimbobgooner]

cheers corporal

[Carrotdude]

Looks like I missed more than I thought I would! Shame no early breakthrough this time though, get Meaker on!

[packofwolves]

There's something slightly concerning about the relish with which Mr Church describes batsmen being hit in the unmentionables. Does he bowl seam by any chance?

[guildfordbat]

Carrot - welcome back. Yesterday and today a lot better than expected - weather wise at least!

Pack - as long as it's not yourself, every man finds it funny when someone is hit in the unmentionables! Believe Churchy bats a bit at local level.

[packofwolves]

Pack - as long as it's not yourself, every man finds it funny when someone is hit in the unmentionables! Believe Churchy bats a bit at local level.

Absolutely Guildford, there's nothing funnier than a corky to the knackers as long as they're not your own. Churchy seems to have very little sympathy for the batters in this match though!

Things must be going well for Worcester, as Surrey are turning to Norah. 47-0.

[Corporalhumblebucket]

A few spots of rain south of London.....Starting to look showery here....

[guildfordbat]

Rain with me now, Corporal.

I'll be surprised if it doesn't reach the Oval before too long ....

[packofwolves]

50 for Klinger, from 67 balls. Reaches his landmark in style, with a huge six off Batty, back over his head. Nice to see you again Gareth...

[jimbobgooner]

rain coming

[jimbobgooner]

who would have thought day 4 would be the best day for batting

[Corporalhumblebucket]

River finally bursts the dam with a wicket.

Meanwhile it's raining again south of London.

And rain finally reaches the Oval....

[jimbobgooner]

it looks like that might be it for the match

[Carrotdude]

Thank goodness for the rain!

[guildfordbat]

Match drawn.

Ends as it began with rain chucking down.

Some positives: -

* Continuing form and reliability of Hyphen's batting.

* Meaker, Lewis and Dernbach all seem capable of taking wickets in Div One.

* Some useful runs and support from the tail.

* The almost unnoticed effectiveness of Davies behind the stumps.

Some questions:-

* The major one. Gramps?

* Particularly with conditions currently favouring seamers so much, do we need Batty in the team? I've said before that he brings more to the team than shown by his stats. However, I can't help wondering whether Spriegel might be a better option at this time. Sprigs is a better batsman and could bowl a few overs of slow stuff if required.

* Is de Bruyn going to be a regular bowler? Adams and Hyphen need to make their minds up here. They seem eager to give him an early bowl but totally reluctant to give him a second spell. Odd.

* At best, the jury is still out as to whether Jordan is a Div One all rounder.

[Carrotdude]

I would play a batsman in place of Jordan for the next match, guildford. We have too many seamers.

What is really bugging me atm is the players complaining about the pitches on Twitter.
e.g. - Davies "Can't wait to play on some flat wickets" and "These wickets are disgusting mate. Lords was a shocker!"

Ramps - "Have never seen uneven bounce at the KIA oval like today. The scores tell a story".

Now I don't mind them having issues but airing them in public worries me. It makes me think that they have got it in their heads that batting is impossible (especially Ramps). Le Roi was better, he said something like "it's hard work but challenging" or something. These batsmen should be treating this as a challenge to score runs rather than just admitting defeat and waiting for some roads to turn up.

[guildfordbat]

I would play a batsman in place of Jordan for the next match, guildford. We have too many seamers.

What is really bugging me atm is the players complaining about the pitches on Twitter.
e.g. - Davies "Can't wait to play on some flat wickets" and "These wickets are disgusting mate. Lords was a shocker!"

Ramps - "Have never seen uneven bounce at the KIA oval like today. The scores tell a story".

Now I don't mind them having issues but airing them in public worries me. It makes me think that they have got it in their heads that batting is impossible (especially Ramps). Le Roi was better, he said something like "it's hard work but challenging" or something. These batsmen should be treating this as a challenge to score runs rather than just admitting defeat and waiting for some roads to turn up.

Carrot - totally agree with you about the whinging tweets.

Thought the one from Ramps on the Saturday night of the Middlesex game was particularly unhelpful and ill advised. How can someone like Linley feel preparing and then going out to bat when he's read that even the best of batsmen have no hope of lasting on that track?

[Shelsey93]

The Ramps tweets during the match at Lord's were unnecessary particularly - 'I am so glad I play at the KIA Oval' or something along those lines. I'm in the process of writing an article on low scores in the Championship (in general, not just in April) and would conclude that mentality is as much a problem as the actual surfaces.

[guildfordbat]

Shelsey - I've always maintained that once a batsman believes in demons, they grow before his eyes.

For Ramps, last season's Tiflex ball is now this season's batting surface.

[Corporalhumblebucket]

What is really bugging me atm is the players complaining about the pitches on Twitter.
e.g. - Davies "Can't wait to play on some flat wickets" and "These wickets are disgusting mate. Lords was a shocker!"

Ramps - "Have never seen uneven bounce at the KIA oval like today. The scores tell a story".

Now I don't mind them having issues but airing them in public worries me. It makes me think that they have got it in their heads that batting is impossible (especially Ramps). Le Roi was better, he said something like "it's hard work but challenging" or something. These batsmen should be treating this as a challenge to score runs rather than just admitting defeat and waiting for some roads to turn up.

Does anything good ever come from all this twittering and tweeting by sportspeople. (Or anyone else for that matter!)

[Carrotdude]

The Ramps tweets during the match at Lord's were unnecessary particularly - 'I am so glad I play at the KIA Oval' or something along those lines. I'm in the process of writing an article on low scores in the Championship (in general, not just in April) and would conclude that mentality is as much a problem as the actual surfaces.

Very good point, I think overhead conditions play a part too - if a batsman sees cloudy skies and it's cold/damp then they will automatically find it difficult even if it does nothing! When it's warmer and the sun's out it helps mentally as much as anything.

Have to say I'm very impressed by Hyphen this season so far, hoping for it to continue and for him to convert some 50's into 100s.

[chichestersurryfan]

totally agree with comments from the Corporal, Carrotdude and Guildford bat re twitter... maybe its because I'm an old fuddy duddy, but these sort of comments and plenty more besides on twitter for all sportsetc are not helpful.. I guess partly the media age, 24 hour news, instant responses etc but some quite reflection and curbing the tongue or fingers on the keyboard or smart phone wouldn't come amiss.... as others have said, blaming the pitches etc for low scores can become a self fulfilling prophecy... clearly there are some difficult pitches, the weather is hardly conducive to big scores in the main... but its the same for both teams and whatever you say, the pitches have produced some cracking cricket and close finishes in difficult circumstances so far this season...

Back to the Worcester match... My prediction of a draw was correct, as was the weather intervening....but pretty much everything else was wrong!

Based on Worcester's start... the weather did us a favour... looking at the table, its all very tight... and with atrocious weather forecast in the next few days...its hard to see too many positive results in the next round of games either....

As others have said.... Hyphen's done extremely well so far.... bowlings been good too... batting not so, but we're not alone in struggling in that dept....

I don't work on Thursday's so hoping to catch a bit of commentary in between times on Surrey v Durham (if the weather permits any play!)

[Carrotdude]

I'll be honest, I love Twitter and in general cricketers use it pretty well. Would prefer our guys see batting now as a challenge to overcome rather than a horrible chore they have to face.

[Shelsey93]

Looking at the forecast, if you don't get any play tomorrow morning this could be a rare complete washout.

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