SURREY VS ESSEX SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

SURREY HAVE NAMED AN UNCHANGED 13-MAN SQUAD FOR THE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP TIE WITH ESSEX, STARTING ON FRIDAY AT THE CLOUDFM COUNTY GROUND IN CHELMSFORD.
No update on Jade still
Full squad
Gareth Batty (captain)
Scott Borthwick
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Ben Foakes
Mark Footitt
Stuart Meaker
Ravi Rampaul
Kumar Sangakkara
Dominic Sibley
Mark Stoneman
Amar Virdi
Can't see us making any changes from the middlesex game
Over to you chaps

Thanks, JimBob.

Yep, same again seems most likely. We did well in the final 2 days at Lord's. Think Rampaul will again push Meaker hard for a place - Chelmsford might suit Rampaul's lesser pace (remember Masters there and that Essex were keen to sign the Viscount), however still hard to see him replacing Meaks. Unlikely imo that Virdi will make his CC debut. Chelmsford wickets aren't normally prepared for spinners; in their 13 man squad, Essex don't include slow left armer Ashar Zaidi (who was tidy in the recent RL 50 at the Oval) and rely on South African Harmer and occasional off spinner Westley for the slow stuff.

Spills wrote in the Surrey Ad a couple of weeks ago that Dernbach's injury was to do with a disc in his back. That didn't sound good although it was hoped that he would be back for the RL 50 qualifier at Yorks (immediately after the 4 dayer at Guildford). The lack of any update from the Club is poor.

Cheers Guildford

Batty's out with a broken toe, so Virdi in and Burns captains. Rampaul in for Footit as well which seems pretty odd.

Happy to see Virdi get a game but worrying news about Batty

James100 wrote:Batty's out with a broken toe, so Virdi in and Burns captains. Rampaul in for Footit as well which seems pretty odd.

Brilliantly brief team news given by Burns in a twitter clip. ''Batts out with a bit of a broken toe''. Corporal - can you have a word with one of the medical orderlies on your army base and enlighten us as to how a toe can be broken ''a bit''?

Not staggered about Rampaul playing, as per my post last night. The Chelmsford track should suit his bowling although he'll have to go easy on the curry over the next few days in this heat. Meaks was thought by most (including me) to be most in danger of losing his spot but Footitt shouldn't have been nailed on. For all his wickets, Footitt has been inconsistent and bowled some dross at times. A breather shouldn't do him any harm. Also, with Batty out, we probably didn't want Virdi and Footitt - two number 11s, don't think Virdi bats - further weakening a dodgy tail.

The virdi revolution is upon us

#VirdiforEngland starts right here right now

Kumar we're gonna need you to do that thing where you score all the runs again

Bl**dy hell! Both the openers gone already. Fallen to The Mighty Quinn (that's hoping to revive Goochie ). Quinn was impressive in the RL 50 game at the Oval the other week.

Morning all - first post of the new season (can't keep away!). Good that Batty's out (should have been dropped anyway) - not so good that we're 9-2 already. I still have nightmares about the 12 all out (I think) against them in the 80s.

Make that 16-3.

17-4

31-5

Gonna need a LOT of bank holiday rain......

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Gonna need a LOT of bank holiday rain......

If we last that long!

kingdaveeagle wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Gonna need a LOT of bank holiday rain......

If we last that long!

King Dave - we've missed your cheery enthusiasm.

guildfordbat wrote:

kingdaveeagle wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Gonna need a LOT of bank holiday rain......

If we last that long!

King Dave - we've missed your cheery enthusiasm.

It took a typical Surrey calamitous session to get me back on the keyboard!

159/5 off 50.

Good partnership between the old master and the young apprentice. A lot better than it was but still much to do before we get a out of King Dave!

Baby Curran picked a good time to find his batting form these past two innings!

180/5. Things looking a lot better but important not to get ahead of ourselves. Once this wicket goes, the next 4 could fall for less than 40. Keep it going, guys!

5th (five!) championship hundred in a row for the GOAT

Best Surrey overseas ever?

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:The virdi revolution is upon us

#VirdiforEngland starts right here right now

Oh dear

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:5th (five!) championship hundred in a row for the GOAT

Best Surrey overseas ever?

Brendon Julian

We're really going to miss Sanga! Great performance again!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:5th (five!) championship hundred in a row for the GOAT

Best Surrey overseas ever?

Has to be. No other Surrey player has scored 5 Championship hundreds in a row. Only 4 others have scored 4 in a row (somehow Ian Ward was one of them!?! ).

Very honourable mentions as always though to Saqlain Mushtaq and the late Sylvester Clarke.

In terms of money wasted, worst was Graeme Smith - all day long.

Meanwhile, suspect the Corporal is playing truant watching Kent v Sussex at Tunbridge Wells. If so, hope he's got his hat on!

jimbobgooner wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:The virdi revolution is upon us

#VirdiforEngland starts right here right now

Oh dear

Does this mean another Surrey slow bowler to quit the game in a couple of years?

Afternoon all - absence earlier in the day on this thread not solely due to depression at Surrey folding like a pack of cards in a gale during the first hour.

Sanga - what can one say apart from

Cracking effort from Sam Curran too.    but he falls even before I have time to press the jinx button...

Baby face what have you done

jimbobgooner wrote:Baby face what have you done

222/6. I wouldn't bank on more than 2 batting points now, JimBob.

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Baby face what have you done

222/6. I wouldn't bank on more than 2 batting points now, JimBob.

Can someone enlighten me about Amat Verdi? Never heard of him!!
Also, have Surrey ever had a worse no 11 than Footit?  Great fight back today...even if we end up with a well below par score... Normally it is other teams that do this sort of thing to us

Chichester - Virdi is a young spinner, who has overtaken the Burger Van in the pecking order...

Shame Curran missed out on his hundred....otherwise we could have had a scorecard with 9 players getting single figure scores and 2 centurions!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Chichester - Virdi is a young spinner, who has overtaken the Burger Van in the pecking order...

Thanks Corporal...not tempted to an afternoon's cricket down the road? Do we have a nickname for Virdi yet?

Tom Curran didn't last long!   Falling to Bopara!  

Question is can Sanga farm the strike.  The last time a proper Surrey batsman took a single of first ball of the over and left Meaker to face five balls it did not end well....

Meaker so far faced 12/13 balls in this partnership.

250 - 7 and a second batting point.  Two more than seemed likely after an hour this morning.

264 - 7 and the new ball due.  Modestly useful partnership here between Sanga and Meaker - don't know whether we can somehow eke out enough runs for a third batting point....

Hi Chichester - a lot of watering down the allotment tonight, I guess.

At one time Meaker was thought to be pretty promising with the bat and there were realistic hopes of him batting at 7 or 8. Be really good if he could show some of that old potential today.

Meaker has faced more than twice as many balls as any other Surrey batsman today apart from Sanga and Sam Curran.  Also only third batsman to reach double figures....

50* partnership

Sanga 150*   297 - 7, with Meaker on a very useful 32*.

301 - 7 and a valuable third batting point.  Partnership of 62 - which was distinctly unexpected.

guildfordbat wrote:Hi Chichester - a lot of watering down the allotment tonight, I guess.

At one time Meaker was thought to be pretty promising with the bat and there were realistic hopes of him batting at 7 or 8. Be really good if he could show some of that old potential today.

Can't get up the allotment tonight as I am taking part in a subbuteo football tournament with 3 other similar vintage guys...relying on a narrow band of thunderstorms early tomorrow to do their job at the allotment...btw..did you know you can now buy a subbuteo streaker and two policeman and handcuffs ...if you are in trouble you can invoke some rule and place them in the penalty area to call a halt to play! I digress... what a partnership ...!! I guess Meaker won't qualify for our worst ever tailender

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:The virdi revolution is upon us

#VirdiforEngland starts right here right now

Oh dear

Does this mean another Surrey slow bowler to quit the game in a couple of years?

You'll both be regretting these posts in 10-15 years time when Virdi has taken his 500th test wicket

Think we also have to applaud the brave, selfless tactics of captain Burns to bat first and get out asap so Sanga could have as much time in the middle as possible - innovative great stuff

334 - 7 and a really commendable fightback from Surrey - putting on over 300 runs after 5th wicket fell.  One can only admire and applaud Sanga, the old master. And superb efforts too from Sam Curran and Meaker. 

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:334 - 7 and a really commendable fightback from Surrey - putting on over 300 runs after 5th wicket fell.  One can only admire and applaud Sanga, the old master. And superb efforts too from Sam Curran and Meaker. 

Totally agree with all that although fear we are still in second place. That should become clear around tea tomorrow. Wonderful for us if Essex are 90/3 with us having made 420, not so good if they're 230/1 with our first dig only having reached 349.

My aim for the morning (realistic but stretching) is a 4th batting point (ie 350 within 110 overs) and then going on to bring up 400. JimBob will want the 400 within the 110 to get the 5th batting point. I can understand that but feel that's pushing our luck too much. I will be very happy to just get to 400.

Agree with Guildford that we'll be doing really well to reach 400. As long as we pass 350 for a fourth batting point I would be reasonably pleased, considering where we were yesterday. Also it would be quite useful to occupy a bit of time so that (a) we have two goes with the new and relatively new ball, before and after lunch and (b) it's less likely that Essex will already have overtaken our score by close tomorrow.