SURREY VS SOMERSET SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

SURREY HAVE NAMED A 14 MAN SQUAD (guildford )FOR THE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH AGAINST SOMERSET AT THE KIA OVAL STARTING ON SUNDAY.
Zafar Ansari returns to the squad having recovered from the thumb injury he sustained in the game against Lancashire last season at the Emirates Old Trafford. Mathew Pillans in included in a Championship squad for the first time but Sam Curran is unavailable for selection having returned to school for the summer term.
There is no place in the the squad for james burke this time.
stuart meaker and jade dernbach remain on the treatment table.
The Surrey squad to play Somerset in the Specsavers County Championship at the Kia Oval on Sunday 24th April, Monday 25th April, Tuesday 26th April and Wednesday 27th April:
Gareth Batty (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Rory Burns
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Matthew Dunn
Ben Foakes
Mark Footitt
Arun Harinath
Mathew Pillans
Ravi Rampaul
Jason Roy
Kumar Sangakkara
Gary Wilson
ravioli if not over ankle injury wilson and Pillans to miss out, if ravioli makes it then batty (which will please olly )
over to you chaps

Utterly bonkers decision about the light. No common sense and no respect for the paying customers, most of whom had sat outside in awful conditions and had to do so longer with no cricket to watch during the first stoppage when by general consent it was lighter than it had been 10 minutes earlier. The umpires seemed to realise they had goofed then as they waited at the wicket for about another 5 mins after the players had already gone off. I don't know why they then came back out and soon off again (other than to get Roy out!!) - I was already heading for my train.

Anyway, an excellent day. Sanga must have the word "class" running all the way through him.

Back home and feeling even better now with a steak and jacket spud inside me!

As well as the praise already deserved heaped on Sanga, only fair to give credit as well to Burns and Roy for their knocks. The first hour was probably the worst time to be batting - grey, overcast, bitterly cold and up against the new ball; Burns battled his way through that when Craig Overton was at his best (8 overs at the start, on the reel apart from a change of ends) and then blossomed. Just a shame he couldn't get to 3 figures. He's done consistently well for some time now but imo will need some biggers scores to get the national selectors properly interested.

Lovely mix of timing and power from Roy. Maintained the impetus after Sanga went. Again a shame he didn't get the century which - as Olly said - he deserved.

In case J Dizzle and any other Cidermen supporters are looking in - Somerset stuck at it and didn't bowl particularly badly. It's just that I doubt any county attack could have handled Sanga today. The one thing they couldn't afford - as van der Merwe did off Trego - was to drop Sanga on 30 odd. In the horribly cold conditions that may have been understandable but it was still unforgivable if you see what I mean! Generally, their fielding was good - excellent work on the boundary from Hildreth and Overton.

Just seen the cricinfo report - thought that was harsh on Overton's bowling. He was on the money at the start and kept going. The main reason his figures suffered was that Rogers returned to him and trusted him more than the others to bowl at Sanga.

The one query I would have over Somerset's attack is why they chose two spinners in van der Merwe and Leach. Thought Jamie O or Allenby (his medium pace dobbers always look Sunday village stuff to me but he has an annoyingly impressive record against Surrey) would have been more suitable than one of the slow men. There again, we've gone in with Ansari and Batty which I remain concerned about ....

Thanks for the report, Guildford. Pleased to see Ansari get some good time at the crease. Hopefully he was looking reasonably solid?

No problem, Corporal.

Ansari definitely appeared solid and was a good fit at number 6. Allowed Roy to take on Sanga's role and go after the attack even more whilst he (Ansari) remained secure and still put away any balls asking for treatment.

Great report Guidford.....burning question...are you back for more today? Forecast is for it to be even colder  still the thought of another steak and jacket potato might help....maybe a sneaky hip flask might assist too!  Sounds like an absolute master class from Sangerkara...

Play started and Ansari brings up the 400 with couple of boundaries.

Dig in Zaf, dig in son

That's all fails again

Thanks, Chichester, and morning all.

I'm tied up at times Monday to Wednesday this week so won't be seeing any more of The Cidermen at the Oval. It therefore had to be yesterday or nothing for me. Even though it was cold (did I mention that? ), glad I went along - always like to see one day of each home Championship match. Add to that, Sanga was rather good.

You and the Corporal are our resident weather experts - do you reckon there'll be enough play for a positive result?

See they're playing atm anyway. Foakes gone this morning but over 420 already on the board. Certainly can't complain about that and can relax a bit - you don't lose with that sort of total first dig.

Btw, Chichester, you obviously dine better than me if you can consider steak on consecutive nights!

Fairly attritional stuff this morning. As I type, Curran run out. 429 - 7.

Fairly cloudy from the pics I've seen tweeted today - again makes you question why only three seamers

Olly - I went into the ground with Matt Dunn's dad yesterday (know him to say hello to). He thought his lad might be playing given the conditions.

The theory of Ansari coming in at No 6 and providing stability while rest of lower order put together some runs (ie in preference to Surrey lower order collapsing at both ends like pack of cards in a gale) is always liable to lead to some frustration - if Ansari scores slowly and none of the lower order batsmen get stuck in.

Hopefully, in this instance, Batty will bash out a quick 30+ while Ansari moves serenely into the 60s. But as I type Batty is run out!

Give me strength another run out

I can understand Zaf being expected to hold it together and the others asked to crack on but it'll be irritating to give them full bowling points.

guildfordbat wrote:Olly - I went into the ground with Matt Dunn's dad yesterday (know him to say hello to). He thought his lad might be playing given the conditions.

Batting first at least gives us the fourth innings to bowl in with the spinners - but again it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Burke's complete omission also irking me - a key part of the team last year I feel he should be given a chance when Sam Curran isn't there to bat at 8 and be the 4th seamer - a role he did admirably last year

Disgraceful run outs in a 4 day game

Rampaul has to cut short his mid morning snack after another run out - not sure he can make it another 45 mins until lunch #prayforRavi

Off for bad light ravioli is happy early lunch

Off for bad light. Earlier we had a shower in West Kent, and various of the other cc matches have been disrupted. Probably will be a bit hit and miss how much play we get in.

Son of Boris has run both players out

guildfordbat wrote:Olly - I went into the ground with Matt Dunn's dad yesterday (know him to say hello to). He thought his lad might be playing given the conditions.

Is there no end to the celebs Guildford is on first name terms with!

Itk

50 for son of Boris

Curran and Batty never applauded

Terrible session this should have got at least 500

Ansari out - I thought they might declare then to get a 20 minutes burst with new ball before lunch.

If we fail to win this game this will be the session that will have cost us 2 stupid run outs under no pressure

44 for the last 5 wkts

GB, there has to be some incentive for watching cricket in rather chilly conditions!..( having said that... I'm not really a steak person!..but would happily take a jacket potato with bacon and avocado !! But I digress....).looking at BBC weather .....probably a number of interruptions over next couple of days....unlikely to be snow stopped play at the Oval....further north a different matter.....lets hope we can get max bowling points plus points for a draw and I'll be pretty happy!

463 all out

Not as good as it could've been, but I'd have snapped your hand off for it after winning the toss yesterday. Now over to the bowlers - this Somerset batting line up is very top heavy, so early wickets are vital

jimbobgooner wrote:If we fail to win this game this will be the session that will have cost us 2 stupid run outs under no pressure

 
That's going a bit far at this stage, Jimbob?  Ok it was a nothing sort of session, but 463 is still a big total, scored at a fairly rapid pace. So, if the weather permits, there is still ample opportunity to win, or fail to win, the game through the performance of the bowlers.

Start the betting how many no balls to come

It did look yesterday as if we would end up with even more but north of 450 is still absolutely fine. Now up to the bowlers and the weather.

I suppose rather gifting Somerset a 3rd bowling point is an acceptable risk in our going for the win. Just hope they don't avoid relegation and see us go for the drop by one point!!

PS Corporal - if you want some more, I also met Matt Dunn's bro Jonathan yesterday.

PPS Chichester - bet you didn't eat avocado in the old days at Upton Park!

Strange first innings Surrey scorecard and in marked contrast to Trent Bridge. There several of our batsmen got a start but none went on. In this game, only 4 scored more than a dozen but all of those 4 then went past 50 and one (Sanga) spectacularly so.

Deduct Sanga's runs though and things don't look so rosy! Fortunately, we don't have to here - when he's gone, it may be a different story.

So about that decision to pick only three seamers Gareth/Michael...

Somerset 50-0 in the 17th over - tight bowling but no breakthrough so far

Looking on the bright side, Jimbob, no no balls so far!

Well we've kept it tight which means a couple quick wickets puts us on top, thing is those wickets don't appear to be forthcoming

Ravioli is gonna need one heck of a tea to get through to the end of play at this rate...

I see that Footitt's got Abell, caught by the Baron.

Enter Buck Rogers. He's got form against us going back to his Derbys days.

I can only echo Olly's words - seems daft to have no 4th seamer but 2 spinners.

An early tea at the Oval. I assume that's the weather rather than special pleading by Ravioli!

Yeah Tresco/Rogers is a scary partnership! Rain halts progress now...

Back on after rain interruption and tea. Footitt completes the last 4 balls of his over and goes for 3 boundaries - maybe Ravioli wolfed his sarnies!

99 - 1 off for rain again. At least this showery weather allows the three seamers attack to take regular breaks....

Corporal - yes, although even less need for 2 spinners.

Draw looking more and more nailed on...

my prediction that snow would stop play was wrong! They carried on playing at Durham despite a brief snow flurry!

https://twitter.com/DurhamCricket/status/724635827880468481

I like to see four fast bowlers... and expected Dunn to play replacing Sam Curran.
Dunn s/r 50.8
Batty s/r 68.5

Hi Jetty - I like Dunn and would be happy to see him in the team.

A couple of factors which don't help him are firstly our having a slow bowler as captain. Imo that is unnecessarily using up a place in the eleven which would be better occupied at this part of the season by a seamer.

Secondly, Dunn is no great shakes with the bat. That shouldn't be a major factor but I suspect Surrey aren't keen on having Rampaul, Dunn and Footitt at 9, 10, Jack.