SURREY VS KENT SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Surrey have named a 14-man squad to face Kent in the Specsavers County Championship, starting on Sunday at The Kia Oval.
Captain Rory Burns has recovered from the tom tits that kept him out of contention to face Yorkshire.
Gus Atkinson (back stress fracture) is set to be a long term absentee while fellow seamers Conor McKerr (heel & hip) and Jade Dernbach (side) are working back to fitness. Ollie Pope enjoyed his first net in three months earlier this week    after dislocating his shoulder back in April.
Stuart Meaker currently has an elbow problem preventing him from bowling but did play as a batsman for the 2nd XI this week while Arun Harinath is still out after picking up an ankle injury on 2nd XI duty last month.
Virdi no comment  
FULL SQUAD
Rory Burns (c)
Gareth Batty
Scott Borthwick
Jordan Clark
Rikki Clarke
Sam Curran
Matt Dunn
Dean Elgar
Ben Foakes
Will Jacks
Morne Morkel
Ryan Patel
Jamie Smith
Mark Stoneman
Can see Burns in for patel as the only change from the Yorkshire game Clark did enough with his 1st innings bowling to keep Dunn out for now
Patel didn't do enough and Jacks is hopelessly out of form.
Over to you chaps  

Cheers, JimBob.

Although I would like to see Dunn play, I suspect you're right that Burns for Patel will be the only change.

Borthwick's form is also poor - his CC average this season is marginally less than Patel's at around 28 - and he's lucky that there's no else in contention atm.

Going tomorrow and Monday.

guildfordbat wrote:Cheers, JimBob.

Although I would like to see Dunn play, I suspect you're right that Burns for Patel will be the only change.

Borthwick's form is also poor - his CC average this season is marginally less than Patel's at around 28 - and he's lucky that there's no else in contention atm.

Going tomorrow and Monday.

Do you think Borthwick is batting too high Guildford?

jimbobgooner wrote:
...

Do you think Borthwick is batting too high Guildford?

Quite possibly although I think he still usually batted at 3 even when we had Sanga in the side. More to do with form atm than anything, I guess - and that applies to several of our batters.

I had a brief chat with Borthwick after a forum meeting earlier this season. Really nice guy although that's irrelevant to these posts!

Meanwhile, why have we got rain now? Hoping we won't lose much play this morning - forecast seems better as the day goes on.

Team as predicated
unsurprisingly a uncontested toss and kent put us in
rocky goes 1st ball

Must have been reading this thread as Elgar goes in at 3

35 for 1 at lunch I would take that in these conditions

50 for Elgar

guildfordbat wrote:

Borthwick's form is also poor - his CC average this season is marginally less than Patel's at around 28 - and he's lucky that there's no else in contention atm.

proving your point today

*pretends to be shocked Surrey batsmen are getting starts and not going on*

brain fart moment from baby face snr

1st batting point

6 down

50 for Foakes

244 for 6 at stumps it could have been worse

A good hard day's play with pluses and minuses for both sides.

Just an hour and ten minutes for the first session but blimey it was tough. Overhead cloud throughout after the early drizzle and Podmore and Stevens bang on the money as they moved it around. They shared the first 13 overs and each went at only slightly more than 1 run per over. First ball of the day from Podmore to Burns was edged to first slip who couldn't gather the ball and a single was stolen - anyone watching the stream know if it was a chance? Couldn't tell from where I was and even Churchy seemed unsure on comms. Next ball to Stoneman was a beauty as it moved back in late and got him lbw as no shot was played. Really feared the worst then but great credit to Burns and Elgar for resisting into the middle session.

The sun was out much of the afternoon and some of the final session until bad light in the opinion of the umpires (not mine) ended play early. Batting by then had become easier allthough still never easy on what is definitely a green top. Fifties from Elgar and Foakes (who is still there), a 40 odd from Curran and 30 from Burns. Failures for Borthwick (a new number in the order but the same lack of runs) and Smith. The most frustrating dismissal for me was Curran. He played a bright and breezy knock which was handy but again failed to go on as he gifted his wicket away.

Much of the time Stewart was the least effective of the Kent bowlers and certainly most expensive as he too often overpitched. However, in between, he produced some crackerjack deliveries to make him the most successful as he took the wickets of Burns, Elgar and Smith. The ball to get Burns was something special as it moved across him and rose to get an edge behind.

Kent's ground fielding was good with several boundary chases and stops although they put down one or two chances at slip.

With Kent almost certain to be batting the majority of tomorrow and sun forecast much of the day, I feel we should now aim realistically to post at least 300. I can't say how good that'll be although it would be a mighty improvement on 1/1 after 2 balls!

Lasting only 30 minutes this morning is not ideal

Batty ill and unlikely to feature today.

Weirdly, Kent agreed to Virdi coming in to replace him, but the ECB have put the kibosh on it, saying it's against their rules.

https://twitter.com/surreycricket/status/1148180191832956929

And no Batty, despite Kent allowing us to play Virdi
Great report btw Guildford

It's actually against ICC playing regulations - the match loses first class status if a player is replaced for an injury that isn't concussion, or an international call up.

I think that's fair to be honest...

This Crawley lad appears rather good

another loss

Bit premature to call it already!

James100 wrote:Bit premature to call it already!

Sadly james it is this year

Kent making this look so easy

A very poor day for Surrey.

The Batty / Virdi situation probably wasn't entirely our fault but the communication of it was a complete farce and set the tone for the day. What James perfectly summed up in 2 sentences in his post took about 45 minutes for the Club to discover and unravel to the long suffering crowd and an increasingly and uncharacteristically ratty Churchy (I was at the ground but also listening on an earpiece).

Before we had got to the bottom of that, Surrey had been shot out for about an extra 25 runs whilst I was looking for at least another 60 to take us beyond 300. Even then no one seemed to know if we were all out or had declared as neither Batty or Virdi came to the wicket! Too predictably, Foakes didn't continue his good work of yesterday, Clarke biffed a few and then got out and Morkel looks one place too high at number 10.

After Curran dismissed Dickson early on with an inswinger, the visitors showed us how batting should be done and made us suffer. Crawley was highly impressive - scoring rapidly early on and driving fluently with hardly a shot off the ground. I was also surprisingly taken with Denly's approach - not fully in control at first but gutsy and determined to stay there, gradually growing in confidence and able to reap the benefits later. Bell-Drummond and then Kuhn (who is still there) were both busy and keen to move the score along.

Overall our 4 main seamers weren't bad but weren't devastating by any means either and lacked consistency. Morkel's opening spell (0/30 off 5) was poor as he was tonked by Crawley before bringing control later whilst Curran was never as tight as in his first spell. Clark continues to improve and looks a much better bowler than during his and our awful RL 50. Meanwhile, an ordinary day at the office for Clarke. 

But boy we missed Batty (I'll forget Virdi now!). A generally warm and sunny day was calling out for a skilled slow man to show his craft. Instead, we had 8 overs - with on average 2 dross balls per over - from Borthwick plus 2 each from Elgar and incredibly Stoneman. The main purpose was to try and improve the over rate - showing minus 3 and raising worries for JimBob of a points deduction - as well giving the seamers a breather.

Our fielding was too often sloppy and we just didn't seem a happy camp. A lot of moaning to the umpires about the ball throughout whilst the body laguage didn't look good.

All in all, another defeat looking on the cards and possibly even more concerning beyond that with a lot of grumbles in the crowd, especially concerning MDV.

Top report Guildford. The attempt to call Virdi into the side does at least suggest he's not injured any more!

98 run lead for Kent

tea surrey trail by 8
9 wkts left

Burns what a plonker

Borthwick

Borthwick out 1st ball that should see him dropped
saying that with Foakes missing the next game that only leaves Jacks as the other option

Foakes missing the next game? Is he injured?

James100 wrote:Foakes missing the next game? Is he injured?

no away with the England lions james

Ah makes sense, I hadn't seen the squad announcement. Cheers

50 for Elgar

Foakes goes to the awful stevens

need a rain dance from gooch to save us

Elgar gone start the car

4th wkt for the pie chucker

What a surprise season best figures for him

81 lead at stumps, 6 wkts down

Well again the middle order fails - the only positive is at least Elgar is showing some semblance of form now

Somehow need Curran, Clarke and Clark to get upto 150 lead and then hope we can skittle them. It’s a minor chance, but it’s all we have. Reality is we’re probably skittled for a lead of 100 in a half hour this morning and they’ve knocked it off just after lunch

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Well again the middle order fails - the only positive is at least Elgar is showing some semblance of form now

Somehow need Curran, Clarke and Clark to get upto 150 lead and then hope we can skittle them. It’s a minor chance, but it’s all we have. Reality is we’re probably skittled for a lead of 100 in a half hour this morning and they’ve knocked it off just after lunch

[Not sure how real this next bit is but it's certainly possible.] And then we have 1 or 2 points deducted for a slow over rate.

We've struggled to keep near to the required rate without Batty. The over rate issue explains why Borthwick and Stoneman have sent down 10 overs of combined garbage for a return of 0/60. Elgar was a lot tidier but is not going to run through a side even in his own dreams!

At home today although also went yesterday. We actually won the first two sessions (taking their last 6 wickets just before the end of the morning session and then getting to around 90/1 at tea). However, our capitulation in the third session plus our sorry showing on day two means we are facing almost certain defeat.

Clarke bowled well once he switched away from the Pavilion end and took 3, for once wrapping up the end of the tail pronto. He had been a bit too leg side before. Sam was also there or thereabouts and chipped in with a couple. Clark was expensive and less threatening whilst Morkel, although still producing the odd ball to shoot past the batsman's ears, often seems down on accuracy this season compared to last. I wouldn't be too surprised if he sits out (some of) the t20s.

Despite JimBob's jibes, Stevens is a wily performer who knows his game and doesn't get too excited when things go his way - as they did yesterday with 4 wickets - or when they don't as in our first dig when his luck was totally out. He was just too smart for another very ordinary batting performance, Elgar excepted who, as Olly says, is finding some form. Pope should be back in August which is certainly something. Meanwhile, Harinath - only at best a squad man in recent seasons - won't be.

Well the final few wickets put on 40 odd this morning, Kent require 121 to win.

BUT

Morne has taken two wickets in his first over, Crawley and Denly back in the hutch with no runs on the board for Kent. It just got interesting!

Surrey go down by 5 wkts.

I guess (wasn't watching) we did fairly well to take 5 and there were a few hopes raised at times as Kent got to their target but always felt we were at least 50 short and really needed 100 more to be fully in it.

We were unlucky with the Batty situation but never played well or consistently enough over the first 3 days to deserve the win.

Open the bar. Time for a group moan.

only one emoji to sum up that performance

and now we lose baby face snr to the England lions as well