SURREY VS SOMERSET LV= COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Surrey have named a thirteen man squad for tomorrow’s LV= County Championship match with Somerset at The Kia Oval – with all rounder Sam Curran named for the first time this summer.
Curran, who is on a back to playing programme supervised by ECB medical staff, replaces injured West Indian seamer Kemar Roach, in the only change from the thirteen named for last week’s innings victory over Hampshire.
Roach has flown home to the West Indies after suffering a hamstring injury during the Hampshire win.
Australian seamer Dan Worrall arrived in the country this afternoon and will be at the ground over the course of the game.
Full Squad:
Rory Burns (c)
Hashim Amla
Jordan Clark
Sam Curran
Ben Foakes (wk)
Will Jacks
Jamie Overton
Ryan Patel
Ollie Pope
Jamie Smith
Cameron Steel
James Taylor
Reece Topley
I don't expect Steel to start so the last place is between Smith or Taylor, I would leave out Taylor but more likely the club will leave out smith with baby face having hardly bowled.
Over to you chaps

Hi JimBob - thanks for the overview, only sorry the Club kept you waiting before announcing the squad.

I agree that Steel will be on the bench, I think he's only being kept around the squad so he doesn't feel too much of an outsider if and when he gets called up to cover for others on Test duty.

Unsure about Sam. He only bowled 5 overs for the stiffs yesterday and wasn't involved in their game today. I doubt he's up to bowling 15/20 overs a day and suspect the ECB would want to put a limit on how much he bowls anyway. Given that plus the fact that Patel bowled garbage in his 3 overs against Hants, I think Taylor will again get the nod.

If I'm right, that probably leaves Sam and Smith scrapping over one place at number 6. I would guess Sam will play and be used sparingly as part of a five man seam attack with Jacks again doing the slow stuff.

Banton and Davey are back for Somerset although Gregory is out with a dodgy back.

Gregory hasn’t been consistently fit since the middle of last year. It’s such a shame.

Davey will play over him and then Banton comes in for Goldsworthy. The only other consideration would be Roelof for Leach to bat 8 with no Gregory.

Cheers jimbob, Curran in for Smith, Somerset win toss and bat....unless guildford knows different?!

JDizzle wrote:Gregory hasn’t been consistently fit since the middle of last year. It’s such a shame.

Davey will play over him and then Banton comes in for Goldsworthy. The only other consideration would be Roelof for Leach to bat 8 with no Gregory.

Green dropped to play an extra bowler. It must look flat otherwise a side with Somerset’s batting woes going in with COverton at 7 is bold…

Brilliant to see Surran back and playing red ball for Surrey. To fulfil his potential in the format he needs to play games below Test level.

It's a nice long batting line-up for Surrey and a long tail for Somerset. Both sides with plenty of bowling options. Somerset going with two spinners but Surrey only Jacks. Some interesting contrasts in the sides. Hopefully it's not a complete pudding of a pitch as the XIs are intriguing and I should be able to get the radio comms on for much of days 1 and 2.

Slow morning session

Think Banton might've got a stinker there

bad toss to lose

guildford go along today? looks like sam curran was on a over count from the ecb

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:guildford go along today? looks like sam curran was on a over count from the ecb

Sadly no, I've got covid.

Saw a bit of the match online but spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself and getting under Mrs Bat's feet! Hoping to get a negative test by Saturday and go along then.

Olly's comment about Sam Curran being on an over count from the ECB ties in with my post last night and why I thought he and Taylor would get the nod with Smith stuck on the bench. Although it's what I expected, I'm not sure it was the right thing to do. If Sam can't bowl more than 10 overs a day, I'm inclined to say that's not enough and leave him out. Give Sam's overs to the others (mainly Taylor who seemed little more than a nursemaid for him today) and either bolster the batting with Smith or bring in a frontline spinner in Virdi / Moriarty.

State of the game now? My gut feel is that we've done well to stop them getting away and could have 'em all out for under 330. If we do that, there should be enough time and opportunity for us to go for the win. The impressively determined Abell with the sensible Davey riding side saddle will have other ideas when they resume in the morning. Interestingly poised ....

Somerset all out for 337. Settle for that - only a teeny bit more than I was hoping for last night.

That said, Somerset have a decent bowling line up even without Gregory and so we'll need to bat sensibly for a first innings lead.

PS
No overs bowled by Sam Curran today. Runs needed by him at number 6 to justify his selection over Smith.

Foakes gone

Banton with some outrageous cheating earlier

jimbobgooner wrote:Banton with some outrageous cheating earlier

Haven't seen much today. What was that about, JimBob?

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Banton with some outrageous cheating earlier

Haven't seen much today. What was that about, JimBob?

looked on the live stream it bounced before he claimed the catch

jimbobgooner wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Banton with some outrageous cheating earlier

Haven't seen much today. What was that about, JimBob?

looked on the live stream it bounced before he claimed the catch

Cheers, JimBob. Sounds naughty.

A positive feature of both Pope's and Sam Curran's batting is that they go at a good lick. If they have a bit of time in the middle, they'll get runs for sure. That's helped move the game on today.

jimbobgooner wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

jimbobgooner wrote:Banton with some outrageous cheating earlier

Haven't seen much today. What was that about, JimBob?

looked on the live stream it bounced before he claimed the catch

Was that the Pope catch? That looked an unreal grab to me.

Hope you’re not down too bad with Covid Guildford!

Game is interestingly poised heading into day 3 - some have coined it moving day I believe…

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Hope you’re not down too bad with Covid Guildford!

Game is interestingly poised heading into day 3 - some have coined it moving day I believe…

Cheers, Olly. Not too bad, mate. Mainly like a streaming cold. In a spirit of generosity, I've managed to give it to Mrs Bat anyway.

I believe you're right there as to how some coin day 3.   The morning session could be very telling - all out within an hour or still batting strong after lunch ....

Surrey all out shortly after lunch, 29 in arrears. Curran made a briskish 80 whilst the excellent Siddle ended up with a sixfer.

The disastrous news for JimBob is that Somerset won the battle of the bonus points. They've got 6 to our 5 (we lost out on the 3rd bowling point).

Result could still go anyway though. Surrey could even sneak the win if Somerset cave second dig or try and push on too soon and throw wickets away.

Tea and Somerset with 2 men down lead by 152.

Looks like their main difficulty will be knowing when to declare. I would guess they'll want to be ahead by 350 as a minimum - so maybe half an hour before lunch giving them about 70 overs to bowl us out a second time.

Well, it sure was moving day. Problem was that the direction kept changing!

Ultimately, Surrey's day imo. With Taylor (unspecified injury) and Curran (presumably an ECB restriction) unable to bowl, the remaining home seamers really stood up. That includes Patel whose bowling against Hants was dismissed by me as ''garbage''. He started the damage after tea with the vital wicket of Abell and sent down 8 tidy enough overs on the reel to allow the others a bit of a breather.

On an Oval track, we should be able to get 225 plus how many Davey and Brooks put on in the morning. A shame we still have to get the last wicket but Olly knows that.

237 to win, decent bowling performance, just need the batsmen.....ooooops....batters to finish it off, not going to be easy though, 4th day pitch, and against 2 spinners...hope guildford and Mrs bat are recovering

thegooch7 wrote:237 to win, decent bowling performance, just need the batsmen.....ooooops....batters to finish it off, not going to be easy though, 4th day pitch, and against 2 spinners...hope guildford and Mrs bat are recovering

Cheers, goochie. I'm still testing positive but feeling a lot better. Mrs Bat is complaining a lot, so no different from normal.

At risk of a mega jinx, I reckon we'll do this. Unless I'm missing somebody, Somerset only have Leach to bowl spin.

Patel playing well but I now want him to go on and convert into three figures. A county cap can't be far off for him.

100 for Patel

56 needed after tea
6 wkts in hand

What a win for the Surrey boys

Dunno where I got the 2nd spinner from! A more comfortable than 3 wicket win that, set up by a great bowling performance in Somerset 2nd inns, then a fabulous knock by Patel, but well played by the whole team again

thegooch7 wrote:Dunno where I got the 2nd spinner from! A more comfortable than 3 wicket win that, set up by a great bowling performance in Somerset 2nd inns, then a fabulous knock by Patel, but well played by the whole team again

Hi Goochie - although he wasn't in the Somerset eleven, there was speculation that van der Merwe would play so possibly that was it.

Anyway, very much as you say. An extremely fine team performance. Extremely good game.