Surrey vs Hampshire LV=County Championship

First topic message reminder :

Surrey have named a 12 man squad for the LV=County Championship game against Hampshire starting today at the Kia Oval.
Tillakaratne Dilshan is set to make his Championship debut , Stuart Meaker is included having recovered from the side strain that has kept him out of action in recent weeks and Kevin O’Brien comes into a Championship squad for the first time this season.  
Jade Dernbach is unavailable due the hamstring strain he picked up against Leicestershire. Tom Curran is also unavailable due to a recurrence of a calf strain in the T20 victory against Hampshire last night and Chris Tremlett is rested.
The Surrey squad for the LV=County Championship game against Hampshire at the Kia Oval on Saturday 28th June, Sunday 29th June, Monday 30th June and Tuesday 1st July:
Gary Wilson (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Rory Burns
Steven Davies
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Matthew Dunn
Tim Linley
Stuart Meaker
Kevin O’Brien
Jason Roy
Vikram Solanki

As JimBob suggested, annoying to let their last wicket avoid the follow on but, barring a cricketing miracle, this was a nailed on draw from last night. A shame we lost so much of day one to the weather.

We probably did quite well to get them all out by tea although by then the game had a bit of an unreal feel about with part-timer Solanki bowling and buying wickets. This was the same wicket as for last week's Leics match; it obviously had some work done to it after that but still held up surprisingly well - probably too much so. When I looked at the wicket on Sunday, it was dusty but no sign of any cracks or anything suggesting it might misbehave.

Hope Ansari is ok. Briefly listened to Churchy and heard him say that Meaker was fielding for him. Then he didn't bat.

Noticed that Hants' young off spinner Taylor took the new ball when we briefly batted after tea - good to let him get a few more overs under his belt. Seems worth the investment.

Meanwhile, Worcs (currently 2nd in Div II whlist we're 3rd and Hants top) are in a decent posiition in their game against Glamorgan which finishes tomorrow. Going to be difficult to get promotion from here. Mixed feelings about that. As well as wanting us to go up, I want us to stay up when we do - unsure how ready yet we would be for the last bit.

Lots of positives to come out of the game for Surrey and we definitely had the better of the match. As has been said it was obviously a shame we couldn't get that last wicket in time for the follow on but from afar it seemed to me that our bowlers were out on their feet anyway so, given a win was unlikely, it may not have been a bad thing that they didn't have to go out there again.

Now to the negatives. Meaker clearly should have played ahead of O'Brien. A team needs three front line seamers to share the workload on wickets at The Oval and on that track I think Meaks could probably have matched what KOB achieved with the bat anyway.

I've heard the Hampshire players were delighted with the wicket and were surprised we didn't prepare a result wicket. Surrey certainly needed the win more than Hampshire. Playing most of the remaining matches away from The Oval might be helpful, apart from the possible run filled draw at Woodbridge Road. Anything you can do about that guildfordbat ?    

Anyway things in general are looking good for Surrey at the moment and I don't think we've once had what I'd call our best bowling attack on the field at the same time yet. Promotion will be a big ask. As well as Surrey maintaining their form a lot will depend on how Worcestershire cope when Ajmal leaves but there are encouraging signs for the future.