Surrey vs Essex LV=County Championship

First topic message reminder :

SURREY HAVE NAMED A TWELVE MAN SQUAD FOR THE LV=COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH AGAINST ESSEX STARTING AT THE KIA OVAL ON SUNDAY.
Vikram Solanki misses out fron the glamorgan squad.
chris tremlett is still not available due to a hamstring strain.
The Surrey squad to play Essex at the Kia Oval in the LV=County Championship on Sunday April 26th, Monday April 27th, Tuesday April 28th, Wednesday April 29th:
Gareth Batty (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Rory Burns
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Jade Dernbach
Matthew Dunn
Stuart Meaker
Kevin Pietersen
Jason Roy
Kumar Sangakkara
Gary Wilson
will dernbach get another chance?

Olly wrote:Burns and #ansariforengland doing a fabulous job so far

As someone I have barely seen play, and who stayed in my memory for little time, I have little awareness for his talents, so in what format and in what role would you see Ansari featuring for England?

Dan Lawrence becomes possibly the 3rd youngest player to record a championship century

Essex stretching the lead past 200 and counting....

Corporal - not there today but tuning in now and again to Churchy and co is bad enough.

Pretty certain you can already bin your invites for drinks in the mess tomorrow night!

I think Norah's only bowled one over today!
Napier will have a century in a couple of overs, and the lead will be 300+

610 - 8 as Le Roi picks up his first wicket.  No one can complain about Ansari not bowling enough in this match as he's now bowled 35 overs.     Wondering whether Norah is another on the casualty list - he's still "only" bowled 18 overs.

And that being tea, Essex have now declared with lead of 270. To save the match Surrey will have to bat for three full sessions and a fair chunk of the last session after tea tomorrow.

The forecast has rain from 8am til about 2pm tomorrow so hopefully that will save us, but overall these first two matches have given me no confidence that we will get promoted as yet again we have little or no hope of bowling teams out twice in a match.

Heard Churchy say that Norah had a side strain.

Btw, Jack Winslade (whom Surrey released last season) was bowling on the outfield yesterday lunchtime under the supervision of the Essex coaches.

Ansari run out for a duck off the fif th ball of the innings!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Ansari run out for a duck!

Perhaps we won't even make tomorrow!

kingdaveeagle wrote:The forecast has rain from 8am til about 2pm tomorrow so hopefully that will save us, but overall these first two matches have given me no confidence that we will get promoted as yet again we have little or no hope of bowling teams out twice in a match.

Whilst appreciating injuries have hampered us in this match, the balance of the bowling attack (2 main spinners and only 3 front line seamers) in current conditions still doesn't seem right. I did suggest before this game began the possibility of Meaker replacing Batty.

That said, who ever we pick needs to be fit and accurate. If not, it's going to be a long hard season.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Ansari run out for a duck off the fif th ball of the innings!

Anyone know how that happened??

Sanga out for 43...   77 -2

95 - 2 at stumps. Third degree 43*, KP 8*  Plenty more batting to be done tomorrow, depending on how much time lost to the weather.

Two days after being in a strong position, we're now hanging on and hoping for rain. I'll hand over to Olly who will be better than me in finding the positives there ....

another side strain

Losing Sangakkara may have even consigned me to the fact that heavy rain is needed to even get near to a draw....

Olly wrote:Losing Sangakkara may have even consigned me to the fact that heavy rain is needed to even get near to a draw....

Why is it we can all see where Surrey's problem lies, yet nothing (apart from signing 'Pepe' Ojha for 4 games!) is done? We still make 'marquee' signings such as Ponting, Smith, KP, Sanga - all fine batsman, but it's 20 wickets we need! The last 'long term' spinner we signed was Herath, who if memory serves, was a replacement for Chawla, who let us down at the last minute, and he had a nightmare season. Ansari could develop into a decent slow bowler, but there's a reluctance to give him long spells (although, he has been given one in this match)
Anyway, I'm off to do a rain dance!

Goochie - your rain dance seems to be working this morning but we're going to need some sunny days and much brighter performances soon.

Looks like we're going to 'escape' with a draw guildford

Meanwhile, in Div 2 Gloucs, Kent trying to hang on for draws, while Leics look very much more likely to lose than to win or draw against Northants.

Later - Leics' long wait for a cc win continues as they lose to Northants.

Surrey match ends in a draw, with no play possible today. Some serious thinking/action needed on the bowling front.

Corporal - very much agree.

Too soon for anyone to be left in a room with a loaded pistol but certainly no drinks in the mess tonight.

From an outsider looking in, the bowling looks a little short. Curran, Dernbach and Dunn as the 3 seamers and then Batty as the spinner. Is Batty needed when Ansari is in the side, to bowl spin? When Meaker is playing for the seconds? Seems a little strange to me.

Our best day of the match!!

Corporal - you fancy first stab at Jimbo's very reasonable thoughts and questions? If not, I'll have a go and/or chip in later. Popping out now.

sounds like jade will be out for a long time which won't upset everyone on here

Hi again Jimbo - guess the Corporal is inspecting the barracks.

A bowler who is/was an important part of Stewart & Ford's early season plans is/was Tremlett. He may not often roll teams over but he generally chips in with the odd wicket or two and keeps things tight. That last part is important if you have a very fast but inconsistent partner (for that, read Dunn or Maker) sending them down at the other end.

We've really missed Trem but, given his 'Sicknote' reputation, his absence is not too surprising. Imo, it was always unlikely we would be successful with only 3 seamers at this time of year but even more so once Trem dropped out. Dernbach was rather parachuted in as his replacement and, to be fair, bowled tidily enough. Unfortunately, he's not taken any wickets whilst Dunn and Curran have bowled too many four balls without taking many wickets either.

Essentially, the bowling balance is wrong and that's shown up even more by the inexperienced Dunn and Curran forming two-thirds of the seam attack. The problem was pretty inevitable imo with Batty being captain and not electing to stand down for the opening games. I like Batty but feel an extra seamer would be better now, particularly with Ansari able to bowl the slow stuff.

Olly wrote:Chin up boys - looks like the weather will save us Wednesday anyways. One drawn game we should've won, one drawn game we should've lost it'll be. Can't complain about that

The unbeaten start to 2015 continues!

guildfordbat wrote:Hi again Jimbo - guess the Corporal is inspecting the barracks.

Nearly right Guildford. I was actually attending local election hustings. (Ultra marginal seat of Tunbridge Wells )

I largely agree with you, though with a caveat that at the moment Batty is still generally a better bowler than Ansari. So, given the lack of teeth in Surrey's attack, it's probably a difficult decision not to play your best spinner, even at this time of year. All a bit difficult - we've got lots of bowlers, but they are all pretty much in the following categories (a) crocked (b) selected but barely/not justifying selection (c) available for selection but not banging on the door for selection.