surrey vs warwickshire LV county championship

First topic message reminder :

Surrey have named an unchanged fourteen man squad for the LV=County Championship match against Warwickshire starting on Tuesday at Edgbaston.
George Edwards has not been considered for selection due to a continuing ankle problem which is being closely monitored by the medical staff.
The Surrey squad to play Warwickshire in the LV=County Championship match at Edgbaston on Tuesday 17th September, Wednesday 18th September, Thursday 19th September and Saturday 20th September:
Gareth Batty (capt)
Hashim Amla
Zafar Ansari
Rory Burns
Steven Davies
Zander De Bruyn
Jade Dernbach
Gary Keedy
Tim Linley
Stuart Meaker
Dominic Sibley
Vikram Solanki
Chris Tremlett
Gary Wilson
fair to say it's s*** or bust

Burns is not a complete mug as a bowler.  

My next guess is that Warks will declare at or shortly after tea on about 110, Surrey then forfeit their second innings (as presumably agreed) leaving the Bears to get around 290 tonight and all tomorrow. That's pretty generous towards the host county but their skipper Chopra holds the best cards by far with us desperate for a win.

The radio guys are speculating about us batting again (following a Warks declaration) to set a target of 350 tomorrow. That to me seems unrealistic. Why should Warks agree to something so challenging?

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Burns is not a complete mug as a bowler.  

True but he ain't Graeme Swann either!

There's the declaration. You've seen this happen before haven't you, Guildford?

Fists of Fury wrote:There's the declaration. You've seen this happen before haven't you, Guildford?

 My grey hairs have to count for something!

I think we should propose Guildford as an expert summariser alongside Churchy!

281 to win  

Jimbob as Guildford says all the cards are with Warks. They are giving up any batting points and if they lose the match they get only one point from the match. At least we have a small chance!

Chopra LBW to Tremlett. 17 - 1.

Westwood caught behind off Meaker 20 - 2 

Cue a match winning innings from Evans?  The wallpaper site will be humming if that happens!

A shame we couldn't get the third wicket tonight but we're still in it. Warks probably slightly on top although their tail in this match isn't as strong as usual. Interesting.

Also - Ashes squad to be decided over the weekend and announced on Monday. Motivator for Tremlett?

Best of luck to you Surrey chaps

Thanks Olly. We will need any bit of luck that's going!

Are we ready?

I'M ready

Wicket! Evans lofts a rank long hop from Meaker to Burns at cover!!

We needed that. Need at least one more by lunch ....

Sounds like one bit of luck!

The Viscount bowls Rikki off a thick inside edge! A bit more of the luck that Olly wished us?!

I put us marginally ahead now ....

All to play for!

The game slipping away

164-4 - badly need wickets. But to be honest, our bowling this season has been not that much better than the batting.

Never fear.  We will still have Batty and Tremlett with us next season.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Never fear.  We will still have Batty and Tremlett with us next season.

And Tremlett has so far shown his value to us on this crucial day by bowling 5 overs (0-17).

The game is drifting away and us to Division 2.

The Radio Warks commentars have referred to us being "too passive" since lunch and that seems right. They also contrasted Tremlett today with the Bears' Chris Wright last year. Apparently when a game was slipping away then, Wright was in his captain's ear imploring to be given another bowl. From Tremlett - nothing.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Never fear.  We will still have Batty and Tremlett with us next season.

Great - is there a Division 3???? 

And now, the end is here
And so we face the final curtain  
we traveled each and ev'ry motorway
And more, much more than this, we did it our way    

Right, so Leics it is then. We should be able to give them a decent game. At least on our better days.

Churchy keeps rabbiting on about how "it's not today that has cost us but what went on before it". I obviously appreciate his point but it does gloss over how very poor we were in that vital session after lunch.

who's next to be shown the door?

guildfordbat wrote:Churchy keeps rabbiting on about how "it's not today that has cost us but what went on before it". I obviously appreciate his point but it does gloss over how very poor we were in that vital session after lunch.

 I feel a bit sorry for Churchy - he does tend to get stuck in a rut with his commentaries when there isn't much positive to say about Surrey.  Must be difficult for him to give a really objective and honest assessment without risking people in the club giving him the cold shoulder. 

Meaker trying to get the pain over quickly now.....  16 off that over.

Fat lady strikes up.  The end.

                                                                         

I don't think today was the best day for the PR team to trumpet contract extensions for Batty and Tremlett. The Aussies must be hoping Tremlett gets named in that Ashes squad on Monday.

All very disappointing. Hardly any positives to take from the season. Maybe some of the youngsters will come through and shine but we haven't seen enough of them to have any confidence of that.

Looking on the bright side, maybe some of us can meet up with Jimbohammers at the Rose Bowl next season?  

guildfordbat wrote:The Viscount bowls Rikki off a thick inside edge! A bit more of the luck that Olly wished us?!

I put us marginally ahead now ....

 

Who honestly would you keep from that excuse for a team?

For me, Davies, Burns, Wilson, Solanki, Ansari and Roy, and some of those wouldn't be definites. Questions have to be asked as to how we've got into this mess again, and why we have had no decent youngsters coming through in recent years to nail a place in the team.

I see Alex Stewart's comments about extensions to contract of Batty and Tremlett:

"Gareth is an integral part of the dressing room".  

Sounds as tho he has been infected by Adams speak.  (When an expensive temporary import player failed to deliver in the T20 Adams would resort to saying they were "immense in the dressing room".)  Presumably "an integral part of the dressing room" is the next level down from being "immense". 

Tremlett "will continue to offer something different to our attack".   

jimbobgooner wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:The Viscount bowls Rikki off a thick inside edge! A bit more of the luck that Olly wished us?!

I put us marginally ahead now ....

 

JimBob - I stil think we were marginally ahead then. Just that we completely blew it after lunch. In particular, Ansari bowled too long without ever being threatening. Very much doubt that we would have been able to go on and beat Yorks but it would have been nice to still have a chance of getting out of jail going into that game.

Btw, Fists, and I should have said this earlier - congratulations on your win. A highly responsible innings from Javid with a lot of positive support from Woakes. No consolation for me that I'm on record backing Woakes as a batsman.