SURREY VS ESSEX SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

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

Went to Chelmsford yesterday as no Middx game and a mate is an Essex member. What an awful ground and, as at so many grounds, hardly any facilities. Seems all I've done this season is see Sanga bat - hardly an imposition.
   Very impressed with Sam Curran, particularly with the way he dealt with some short-pitched stuff from Wagner. Very fine recovery by Surrey.

sirfredperry wrote:Went to Chelmsford yesterday as no Middx game and a mate is an Essex member. What an awful ground and, as at so many grounds, hardly any facilities. Seems all I've done this season is see Sanga bat - hardly an imposition.
   Very impressed with Sam Curran, particularly with the way he dealt with some short-pitched stuff from Wagner. Very fine recovery by Surrey.

  A very wise decision on your day out Sir Fred!

Sir Fred - thanks for your post. What was your take on the first hour? Good bowling, poor batting, a track doing something, a mix of all?

guildfordbat wrote:Sir Fred - thanks for your post. What was your take on the first hour? Good bowling, poor batting, a track doing something, a mix of all?

Well, I was not behind the wicket so a bit difficult to judge. The pitch did have some pace in it and Quinn was impressive. By all accounts, Sibley got a good ball. Sanga, though, looked in no trouble at all!

Meaker falls one run short of his 50 and one run short of a 4th batting point. Hopefully we can at least get that last single.  Very fine effort by Meaker

And Sanga brings up the 4th batting point.    That seemed wholly improbable prospect at about 1140 yesterday.

Sanga 200

369 all out. Magnificent innings from The King.

Shame Meaks couldn't reach his half century. He deserved that. A very valuable partnership of 110 for the 8th wicket - that gets a lot of credit.

Unlike yesterday, overcast this morning. That might aid our bowlers. Looking, in particular, to see what Rampaul can do ....

On comms between innings, the Radio Essex guys were talking about their side needing 220 to avoid the follow on. I thought that was unnecessarily pessimistic and the start Cook and Brown have made backs up my thinking that we're a bit light. Nonetheless and however you look at things, an excellent recovery by Surrey which puts us back in the match.

67 - 1 and Tom Curran dismissed Cook. Brisk start by Essex.

guildfordbat wrote:

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.

Essex 127/3 at tea in reply to our 369 all out. Not as wonderful as wished for but that was never very realistic. It's still pretty useful as far as we are concerned. As of now, it puts us top of the table (5 bonus points for us against Essex's 3) and in a decent match position although that could change again. Interesting ....

A lot of positive noises being made on the Club site about how we kept things tight with the ball and continued to apply pressure. I sort of get that but only to some extent. The other side of the story is that Essex have stayed patient and have a fair chance of getting a first innings lead.

I reckon we expected the track we've got and the approach today was pre-planned. That probably explains Footitt being left on the bench and fellow speedster Meaker, despite one wicket, only being trusted to send down 8 overs. Yeah, pace has a risk attached to it of runs being given away quickly. However, we need 20 wickets to win a match and I'm not sure that just slowing the run rate down will achieve that.

New ball due first thing tomorrow - really need to take several wickets to restore parity. At the moment looks unlikely Essex will achieve full batting points and quite likely Surrey will miss out on one or two bowling points.

Would like to know why Meaker hasn't bowled more like Guildford says need wickets!

I know he hasn't got a wicket yet, but it's good to see Virdi bowling tight stuff. Going at 2.42 per over against a batting line up littered with former, current and future England players, he seems to be holding his own

Hello chaps

jimbobgooner wrote:Hello chaps

Been worried what state you would be in - well done, anyway!

Essex 256/4 after 95.

I think we're in danger of being mugged here.

Draw already looking most likely result with Essex getting one more bonus point from the game. We're keeping it dry but still allowing Essex to slowly tick over which puts the kibosh on a Surrey win.

Essex 256 - 5 as the (underused) Meaker dismisses the highly talented batsman, Lawrence, for 100.  96 overs gone, so opportunities for bonus points for both sides starting to get a bit restricted.

And with that, Meaks gets his 2nd wicket in only his 10th over - Laurence for a ton. Again, he makes things happen! Obviously encouraging but we should have used him more and earlier.

Essex 290/5 going into the 103rd over. They're comfortably going to get 3 batting points although a 4th looks extremely unlikely. Virdi hasn't bowled yet today. Putting him up against Tendo would be interesting and might tempt the Essex captain into going big ....

Not for the first time ten Doeschate taking Surrey attack to the cleaners.  Presumably hoping to get 4th batting point.

303/5 in the 105th. Just more than 5 overs left for us to take one more wicket and level it on bonus points. I think Tendo and Foster will be happy to try and play them out.

1st wkt for virdi

Sounded on comms that Foster was pretty naive in trying to get after Virdi, got an inside edge and couldn't believe he had been bowled querying the method of dismissal. Anyway, it's an important wicket and another point for us, JimBob! 6 bonus points each in the game.

Only disappointing thing is that Olly's Virdi for England campaign will get even louder!

2nd wkt for virdi calm down Olly

Amar Virdi with figures so far of 30-6-61-2. That's proper slow bowling.

Well done Virdi - wonder whether he could turn into a kind of "Monty Panesar lite" - ie Panesar without the extra baggage allowance.

Virdi traps ten Doeschate LBW   to give him a third wicket, with Essex on 344 - 8.  Surrey still 25 runs ahead.  Sounds like a very fine spell of bowling by the debutant. He really has kept the batsmen quiet.

Can't wait for Mumbai 2025 when crane and virdi take 20 Indian wickets between them

Essex all out a lead of 14 don't won't to be more than 2 down at stumps

383 all out as Meaker clatters the Mighty Quinn's stumps and joins Ashes winner Virdi (sorry, Olly's got me ahead of myself ) on 3 wickets.

Essex lead by 14 and it's ''an early tea'' - Rampaul's three favourite words!

I do wonder about our approach with the ball. Sure, we kept it tight and didn't give away runs stupidly. However, I'm inclined to think we let it drift too much - it's not only batsmen who can be guilty of that. As said before, I was keen to use Meaker more and earlier. The draw looks clear favourite from here but if one side can win, it's more likely to be Essex than us.

Anyway, none of that slight whinge should take away from a splendid debut by Virdi. Very well done to him.

40 overs left tonight

jimbobgooner wrote:40 overs left tonight

Add 96 for tomorrow and deduct 2 for change of innings = 134.

That makes a positive result seem more likely than I've been thinking.

We do need to be careful if thinking tomorrow about any declaration - the likes of Tendo, Bopara and Wagner can go big for a target whilst Cook will be happy to bat time if they need to play out the overs.

50 up after 10 overs. Unlike the start of our first innings, luck going our way - both openers dropped off Porter.

Rocky gone

Off for bad light

jimbobgooner wrote:Off for bad light

Not too upset by that. If we had continued playing in this session, we were more likely to lose another wicket and get into trouble than anything else.

PS You feeling ok today, JimBob? Any hangover?

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Off for bad light

Not too upset by that. If we had continued playing in this session, we were more likely to lose another wicket and get into trouble than anything else.

PS  You feeling ok today, JimBob? Any hangover?

A bit of a sore head Guildford

Get out of tomorrow with a draw and I think that's a job well done considering we were 31-5 an hour into the match.

As Guildford says, seems to be an impressive debut from Virdi. To keep it that tight, and pickup 3 wickets against what I'd say is the best county batting line up in the country at this moment is no mean feat.

Considering how well placed Essex were at the start I think that's a fair day's work from Surrey. Odds on a draw, but we'll need to bat well into the afternoon to make the match safe.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Considering how well placed Essex were at the start I think that's a fair day's work from Surrey. Odds on a draw, but we'll need to bat well into the afternoon to make the match safe.

Yep, it's our's to draw or muck up now.

We don't want to end up giving them, say, 35 overs to make 200.

50 for third degree

jimbobgooner wrote:50 for third degree

Yeah, can't really get excited but he's done what's been needed and all credit to him for that. Draw looking more nailed on with every ball bowled.

On an anorak point, will Sibley come in at 4 to allow Sanga proper time in the next match to bring up a consecutive 6th ton?

JimBob - good double effort by us to put the mockers on Burns! Good diving catch by Harmer off his own bowling (on the BBC site). To answer my earlier question, Sanga comes out at number 4.

Sanga rattling along quite nicely so far with 24 off 20 balls.  Potentially there's ample time for a century if he scores briskly as I can't see Surrey making a meaningful declaration.

Still 69 overs to be bowled.

guildfordbat wrote:JimBob - good double effort by us to put the mockers on Burns! Good diving catch by Harmer off his own bowling (on the BBC site). To answer my earlier question, Sanga comes out at number 4.

as well

Afternoon Corporal - yes, I agree, a declaration would be no use to us and might just cause us a bit of anxiety. Sanga getting towards a century would certainly be a good reward for the Chelmsford crowd.

PS Read the report on cricinfo about the Tunbridge Wells fixture, concerning. As Olly might post, #saveourfestivalcricket.

Yet again the curse of the Last over before lunch strikes again

jimbobgooner wrote:Yet again the curse of the Last over before lunch strikes again

That wicket of Borthwick's is probably just enough to keep Essex interested for another 10 or 15 overs.

We lead by 137 with 62 overs left in the day (that's having deducted 2 for a change of innings). If Essex could get us all out and have 30 overs to chase a target of circa 200 to 220, I'm sure they would attack from the off. They've got some big hitters in their line up - Bopara, Tendo, Wagner. Even if they lost a few wickets quickly, they could still be confident of batting out the relatively small number of overs that remained.

That's all assuming the weather stays ok.

As for our batters, Sanga can play with his usual brilliance whilst the rest just need to be sensible and patient. Important knock coming up for Sibley - he could do with his name ending up in red ink.