SURREY VS YORKSHIRE/SOMERSET SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

SURREY HAVE NAMED A 13 MAN SQUAD, INCLUDING MARK STONEMAN AND KUMAR SANGAKKARA, FOR THE VISIT OF YORKSHIRE IN THE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP, STARTING ON TUESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER.
Surrey, however, will now be without Jason Roy and Tom Curran for the rest of the season due to their England white ball commitments.
Conor McKerr will be unavailable for the remainder of the campaign having sustained an ankle injury.
There is no place in the squad for Scott Borthwick after a run of poor form but there is for Freddie Van den Burgh
THE FULL SQUAD IS:
Gareth Batty (c)
Rory Burns
Rikki Clarke
Sam Curran
Jade Dernbach
Ben Foakes (wk)
Stuart Meaker
Ryan Patel
Ollie Pope
Kumar Sangakkara
Mark Stoneman
Freddie van den Bergh
Amar Virdi
The burger van plus either Dernbach or Virdi to miss out need the corporal for a weather update to decide the last spot.
Over to you chaps

As long as the weather is fairly kind tomorrow, I think we'll get the win. Our bowling was good and often caused the Cidermen problems. Batty and Clarke both on the money. Meaker hostile.

Tend to agree with Olly's thought on Sanga's drop. Haven't seen it on screen yet but Sanga was defintely diving to his right in the direction of Foakes. Whilst the ball was nearer to Sanga, I wouild normally have expected the keeper to go for it. Late on this afternoon, Foakes dropped Abell off Batty - hard chance.

I'm at the Awards bash now. Most of the squad here also. Food being served for all, surprisingly good and plentiful. First player to arrive was ... Ravi Rampaul!!

Very interested to hear about Sangakkara's speech at the awards - hopefully some YouTube footage will go up, was meant to be incredibly rousing wasn't it Guildford?

Obviously he cleaned up all the awards - PLEASE DONT RETIRE KUMAR

I'm sure full details of the Awards night will be on the Club site in the morning but, yep, Sanga totally cleaned up. He was also given Honorary Life Membership of the Club - that's top of the tree and then some.

His speech was fantastic. Rousing, humbling, humourous.

He paid massive tribute to all at the Club and its supporters. The promise of the teenagers now coming through was particularly emphasised together with the importance of each player leaving the Club in a stronger position than when he joined. He referred very eloquently to the legacy of Surrey and every player being a torch bearer of that legacy.

Tribute was also paid by Sanga to Graham Ford who played a major part in his recruitment.

Sadly, he confirmed his retirement and that he would then live in Sri Lanka.

A video was played in which the rest of the squad described him in one word - Legend, Awesome, Gentleman, King, etc. Sanga then said to the audience, ''They never say that to me in the changing room or in the slips!''.

Thanks Guildford! Let's hope Sanga can cap his stay at the Oval with a Surrey victory today.

Abell has gone to Clarke, but the only wicket to fall so far.

And then Meaker bowls Davies....BUT ITS A NO BALL

Got the makings of a frustrating day for Surrey.....

Lead has gone past 50 for Somerset as Batty is bowling legside tripe - 4 wickets left for Surrey to get. If Trego/Overton stay together for much longer, that lead will rapidly increase. Definitely the Cidermen's morning so far

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Lead has gone past 50 for Somerset as Batty is bowling legside tripe - 4 wickets left for Surrey to get. If Trego/Overton stay together for much longer, that lead will rapidly increase. Definitely the Cidermen's morning so far

As far as the morning in isolation goes - yes, I agree.

But, in the context of the match, two wickets this morning will do me, albeit that was the lowest amount I felt we had to take.

Take the last 4 by or around tea and then we can have a blitz. Get Trego or Overton and then let Meaker loose on the rest.

Whilst we're pretty frustrated atm, I suspect Somerset supporters will be even more worried.

Less than half an hour after lunch and 2 more Cidermen have gone. Trego the last to fall, bowled by Patel in his first over. He featured last night - chosen by sponsor and club (think that's right) as most improved player.

Not sure I'd still have Patel on now he got Trego - with Leach in as a left hander, I'd like to see Batty bowl at him.

If anybody can tell me why Clarke hasn't taken the new ball ahead of either Sam or Jade I'd love to hear it

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:If anybody can tell me why Clarke hasn't taken the new ball ahead of either Sam or Jade I'd love to hear it

Curran/Dernbach haven't looked the least bit threatening all match, and that is continuing here. Bess/Leach partnership goes past 30, and we're wasting the new ball bowling half trackers at 9/10. This is really poor from everyone

Lead goes to 122 as Dernbach is trying the age old tactic of bowling unthreatening half volleys to the number 9

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Not sure I'd still have Patel on now he got Trego - with Leach in as a left hander, I'd like to see Batty bowl at him.

And in his first over to him, Batty gets Leach caught at slip.................

need this wkt quickly

143 needed off 40 overs

jimbobgooner wrote:143 needed off 40 overs

Should be doable - but it should be about 110 off 50 overs, if we hadn't decided to bowl our two most ineffective bowlers for 9 overs of rubbish....

Yeah, should be ok. Should also help that our openers have 20 minutes to prepare.

third degree gone

104 needed as Burns goes for 13.

A quick start from Surrey - means we're not under pressure from a run rate perspective. Just need to tick those runs down...

now rocky

And now Rocky goes...surely we're not going to lose this....???

spin on

trego has injured himself

jimbobgooner wrote:spin on

Bess was poor with the ball yesterday morning. Too often too short and sometimes leg side as well. Leach never had a bowl when I was at the game which was a shame, at least for me.

70 needed off 20 overs

that's awful from patel

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:spin on

Bess was poor with the ball yesterday morning. Too often too short and sometimes leg side as well. Leach never had a bowl when I was at the game which was a shame, at least for me.

I saw him at Essex - you really didn't miss much...

Afternoon all.  Patel had more or less ground to a halt. Could do with Sanga and Foakes taking us there.   Not too confident about the rest of the line up if we decide to go into headless chicken mode.

14 off last two overs getting Surrey back on track.

46 off 90 balls

not been impressed by leach

foakes has to go on the plane

Foaks and Sanga playing really well!

Sanga's last few balls faced at the Oval!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Sanga's last few balls faced at the Oval!

corporal get the bar ready

Sanga out for 35. What a player!

His Holiness lofts a 6!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS WHAT A WIN

Great batting by Foakes in the second innings. And a nice little cameo by Pope.

Full marks to Somerset for their tribute to Sanga when he was out.

As entirely expected we made hard work of bowling Somerset out - but at least we finally got home in the match.

Right, the bar is open drinks are on the house (well, Guildford's tab anyway )

I've forgotten what a win feels like
right lets go

Echoing some of Olly's [edit: and the Corporal's] earlier comments we made harder work of that than we should have done. However, we deservedly got there in the end with Sanga and Foakes calming our nerves. For once, I was pretty confident from early on in this match. Somerset just didn't get enough runs first dig. The stand out stars for Surrey were understandably Sanga and Clarke but Batty's wicket of Trescothick on the brink of lunch on day one was vitally important in setting the course of what followed.

Anyway, on my way to the bar now. Corporal - I seem to have left my wallet in my other jacket ....

So 30 mns ago we were still mathematically in the relegation mix. Now we're second. Kudos to Essex for having run away with CC1 this year.

Well done to the boys for holding their nerve in a tricky run chase today, led by the ever improving That's All. Assuming no England selectors were at the ground today, I hope they read the papers and recognise the best w/k bat in the country surely has to go to Oz, despite Bayliss's comment that the touring party will come (did he say 'exclusively' or just imply it?) from those who've played for England in past 18 months.

And a million thanks for the memories to Sanga, surely one of most talented players and nicest gentlemen (sic) ever to grace our famous old ground. I'm heartbroken to have missed his 'farewell' home match but feel privileged to have seen him play for us before, over these past few years, with such grace and distinction. Talk about bowing out at the top of your game.

An excellent win that - good to see Foakes in the runs again, I would be shocked if he isn't in the Ashes squad personally

What a signing Rikki Clarke has turned out to be - I wasn't convinced by it (more from if he still had it more than losing Sibley - as people know I'm not Dominic's biggest fan...), but he's proven all the doubters wrong. Really helped stave off relegation, especially with Tom Curran being absent for a lot of the second half of this season

Also interesting to note how well Sangakkara/Foakes batted together all season - Foakes seems to have taken on a bit more of an aggressive mentality against spin, I wonder if the King has rubbed off on him in that area (i.e. Given him some rather handy advice!)

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Also interesting to note how well Sangakkara/Foakes batted together all season - Foakes seems to have taken on a bit more of an aggressive mentality against spin, I wonder if the King has rubbed off on him in that area (i.e. Given him some rather handy advice!)

glad you clarified that olly

Congrats to Surrey on making themselves safe - I didn't really think they'd be in much danger anyway but it's nice you fellows can relax and enjoy the final game now...

Less so Hampshire : quite a performance to lose that match to Essex ! Seriously think they are in danger now ; as I'd fancy Somerset to win at home and both Middlesex and Yorkshire to pick up a few points ...last game will be tense for all of them.

And as for Simon's fears that Bayliss might have sort of ruled Foakes out of Ashes selection : I don't think he quite said that nobody who hadn't actually played a Test recently wouldn't be considered ; more that he wasn't expecting to produce any total wild cards.
Worth noting Foakes spending time working with the Test squad before one of the Tests a few weeks back : maybe that counts ?

From memory, Bayliss's actual comment was something like 'it is unlikely that...' rather than saying outright 'no-one...', but of course the headline was slightly different.

Not sure what more Foakes could be doing in terms of pushing himself forward for selection - better keeper than Buttler (and Bairstow) and scoring plenty of FC runs with a better temperament and technique for first class / Test batting.