Surrey v Northants

I had a much needed day off from the Woking salt mines today and went along to the Oval.

My day away from the office was better than poor Michael Brown's at it! However, at least his first ball dismissal wasn't as ridiculous as the ways Davies and Maynard got themselves out.

Although we are clearly still in this game, I believe we fell at least 50 runs short - particularly as Davies, Maynard, Wilson and de Bruyn all settled in, got going, reached around 30 and then got out when more runs were expected from each of them. Vaas bowled excellently and deserved more than his two wickets. However, the rest of the Northants bowling was pretty ordinary and not as good as we made it seem (my views on Middlebrook were well documented on another forum last season).

Hyphen and Batty both played good and valuable innings. We would certainly have been in the mire without their runs. However, Hyphen needs to work on his calling and running between the wickets as evidenced by alarms with Davies and Maynard.

All in all, everything to play for tomorrow. However, I can't help feeling we should be starting it better placed than we are ....

Not the worst day but it definitely could/should have been better. What exacty happened to Davies? Hyphen's fault I take it? I think if we can restrict them to a similar score we will be doing well.

I bet you enjoyed the sunshine today!

Hi Carrot - Yes, a lovely day in the sun.

Davies' dismissal was actually more his own fault. Immediately after lunch he set off for a single that was never on, Hyphen wasn't interested and the two were around the bowler's end as the bails came off!

However, before then the running was far from perfect. Only minutes from lunch Hyphen caused near panic by going for an impssible run before being hurriedly sent back by Davies. Later with Maynard, there was another scare. Hyphen was at the bowler's end when a bye could certainly have been run and he should have called for it straightaway. However, he delayed his call of 'yes' too long and then had to immediately change it to 'no' to prevent further embarrassment.

With the sunshine set to continue and the wicket playing well, we will do well tomorrow to restrict them to a similar fist innings total as ours.

Hopefully the running will improve with time, there are lots of youngsters in the team. I have high hopes for Meaker this season so I hope he begins to prove me right tomorrow.

So, to summarise the day's action:

There was a young bat named Hyphen
Whose running recalled Monty Python
Shouts of Yes...No...Wait...
Soon sealed his partner's fate
And did Guildford's day much enliven.....

I like it

Are you going again today Guildford?

Corporal - magnificent! Your week's holiday was clearly spent on a week's poetry writing course, money well spent

JimBob - no cricket watching for me today. Mrs Bat has various domestic chores lined up although I hope to tune in from time to time ....

Thanks for the feedback Carrot and Guildford! Probably why I've never made it above Corporal. Too much of the Sgt Wilson school of discipline - "would you please mind standing to attention!"

The Viscount takes Surrey's first wicket of the first class season......

'The Viscount takes Surrey's first wicket of the first class season.....'

As he did in 2010 - thought you might like that anorak fact, Corporal! A few minutes ago Viscount had tremendous figures of 7-4-6-1 ....

The new batsman White has so at faced 21 balls without scoring. Surrey putting the squeeze on it seems.

Only one thing to say - that piece of research takes the biscuit.....

Wicket! This time one of their batsmen gets out around the 30 mark when seemingly well set - Loye bowled by Batty for 29. Match intriguingly poised as lunch approaches ....

The Viscount is on fire it seems. 4-22 for him with Northants 189-7 at tea.

I see nothing has changed in terms of being able to finish off an innings.

100 partnership for the 8th wicket. FFS!

Well done the Viscount - but disappointing to have let them off the hook. At least they were not rattling along at 5 an over.

Can't help thinking if we were not going to bowl Schofield to any extent we would have been better off picking Roy.

Well done today to the Viscount. Not only did he obviously bowl to very good effect but, according to Mark Church on the radio, he also fielded well throughout the day. A true team man, Viscount - the more I see and hear of the guy, the more I like him.

However, as others have said, we rather let them off the hook and so end the day, like yesterday, disappointed. We are not in a bad position but again we know it should be so much better.

Also, we are soon going to be coming up against other teams with better bowlers and batsmen than Northants. We won't be able to be so generous towards them ....

I know it's only the first game but it is a worryingly similar trend to the last couple of seasons. Very strange about echovirus not bowling, what's the point?

am i the only person who thinks Batty is overrated

Cricketfan - going by the posts last season on the original 606 forum, hardly anyone rated him at all! To be fair, he's had a pretty decent couple of days with sixty odd runs and a couple of wickets.

wow im suprised lol, although to be fair he is better than anyone we have

im an essex fan we have tim phillips

Cricketfan - if memory serves me right, you also used to have James Middlebrook. I saw him at Guildford a couple of years ago and he was utterly dreadful! To be fair he's had a couple of decent days with wickets and runs like our own Gareth Batty ....

I must admit to a tinge of grudging admiration for G Batty - minimal expectations from Surrey fans (including me) when he was re-signed, but he keeps plugging away. Absolutely dire in the first part of last season but he has turned himself into "almost adequate" (was that Guildford's description?). It's no longer a shock when he takes the odd wicket or two.

Talking of Battys, it's interesting to see that Jon Batty put in a marathon batting stint for Gloucs (just as he used to do for us) which could well help them to beat Derbys.

guildford- you say we had middlebrook and he was awful and i agree. But i think this season if we werent goinng to resign kaneria then instead of getting tsotosbe and styirs as overseas we should have brought in a spinner instead

Cricketfan - the problem with bringing in a spinner is that it is very hard to find a decent one who is available.

Surrey only brought in paceman Yasir Arafat as a fairly late overseas signing for this season due to a combination of two factors: (1) Tremlett's likely involvement with England following his Ashes success; and (2) no overseas spinner had been found by then.

Why didn't Essex re-sign Kaneira?

This is getting very annoying now, I know they are both pretty good batsmen but how can we get wickets for less runs than these 2 have put on for the 8th wicket? Ridiculous.

Batty strikes again.

He's getting pretty good at that mystery ball.

9 wickets down.

Batty's mythical mystery ball - is that one that actually spins?

Schofield has still only bowled 5 overs. Anyone know if he is injured.... otherwise what is the point?

Northants all out for 376, a lead of 54.
Northants were 163 -7, trailing by 159.
On Wednesday Adams spoke of the need to drive home an advantage and that this was a lesson learnt from last season ....

Obviously not...Meaker and Batty end with 3 wickets each just such a massive shame that we couldn't get the big lead that was there for the taking. I really don't understand Schofield not bowling unless he's injured. 2nd innings has started well though, 47-0 so far.

Wilson has been dropped twice so far according to Churchy - but hopefully will capitalise on that.

I don't think Schofield is injured. His first over yesterday shortly before lunch went for 8 and that seemed to signal the curtain coming down on his bowling. Particularly given that Hyphen was happy to give de Bruyn a dozen overs, the point of playing Schofield rather than Roy does seem odd ....

90-0 becomes 115-3. Both openers out in the 40's which is frustrating.

I recall from the distant days when Brown last played for Surrey that he is well known for getting out for this sort of score, hence his rather modest batting average. Still, I would settle for him having a batting average of, say, 35 if he was regularly seeing off the new ball....

Let's hope that Hyphen continues to build a good innings.

Corporal - with the aid of an old Playfair annual, I can confirm that you are spot on about Brown. In 2009, his first and for all practical purposes his only season so far with Surrey, he just missed out on a thousand runs scoring 992 in total and averaging a bit over 36.

Whilst this is hardly earth shattering, I completely agree with you about the benefits of Brown seeing off the new ball - particularly when so many of our top order are of the 'crash, bang' school.

Hard to see us winning this game from here ....

All in all not a terrible day for Surrey, 93 runs for them this morning was too many and Hyphen getting out near the end is a big shame but the damage was all done yesterday after we let them off the hook. If we bat positively in the morning session a result is not totally out of the question but the first priority has to be to make the game safe. I wouldn't rule out a batting collapse and a Northants win, although I really really hope that doesn't happen.

where has schofield batted in this game?

In a strange way a Surrey batting collapse might give us our best chance of a win. We would then at least have time to bowl Northants out. I don't think there's enough time left for us to bat to a declaration and then bowl 'em all out. Of course, a Surrey batting collapse still gives the greater chance of victory to Northants!

A lot may again depend tomorrow on Batty with bat and, in particular, ball. Yes, Corporal, I understand your 'grudging admiration' and it was me with that 'almost adequate' description. To be fair, he's doing a lot better than that three days into this season.

Anyway, should be an interesting final day. I hope to call in a favour at the Woking salt mines and get along to the Oval ....

Cricketfan - Schofield's role in this game reminds me of a chap whose place in the team was almost entirely due to his wife making the best cricket tea in the South East! He's hardly bowled at all and batted down the order - number seven in the first innings and, with Viscount Linley as nightwatchman, almost certainly number eight in the second.

Still all very depressing that we cannot finish teams off, think we are going to miss Pilkington this season! Lets make sure we dont lose this match.
How Schofield is still around our first eleven is a bigger mystery than Boom Bomm Battys mystery ball.

I have just noticed that Schofield only bowled 5 overs in their first innings ( probably for the best) but with Batty,Meaker,Arafat,Linely and De Bryun surely we should of had an extra batsman in (ROY)

Good to see your back Guildford I was worried a winter in the salt mines may have taken there toll.
Lets hope we can bat bfor a session and a half and that should be enough for a draw which is a better start than last season.

So a draw it is. Good runs from de Bruyn this morning, ably assisted by Maynard and Schofield who then went on to get 2 wickets along with another 3 for Meaker. Unfortunately we were short on runs in our first innings and let them get away in theirs which is why we didn't win this game.

Unfortunately Schofield did well today which means he'll probably play again which, imo, would be a mistake. He just isn't good enough.

Carrot - a fair summary.

Another way of looking it is that our bowling had been dire for several seasons, rising to modest last season. The main cause of optimism for this season was Tremlett plus Dernbach. With both absent it's not all that surprising that eventually we lacked cutting edge. At least Meaker got a few wickets...

Hi chaps. Thanks Depressed for your welcome - yes, it was a long, cold winter down the salt mines of Woking.

I managed to make it to the Oval today. We didn't do badly but yet again it was ultimately a frustrating day. It is particularly annoying that we were on top for nearly all parts of the game other than the Hall / Middlebrook partnership and yet we end up with only a draw and less bonus points than Northants, a team we beat home and away last season.

As usual, a mix of pluses and disappointments today.

Pluses:

* Our batting was good. De Bruyn batted well and never looked troubled. I think he'll provide the 'adhesive quality' we need so much whilst Ramps is out. Useful runs from Maynard and a delightful 'crash, bang' cameo from Schofield as the declaration approached.

* Meaker's pace and accuracy was impressive. So enjoyable to see him twice uprooting the stumps. Schofield gained in confidence from his first wicket and deserved his second. [I understand Carrot's concern that Schofield isn't good enough but - given he was selected for this game - I think we have to judge for now on current performance.]

* Good ground fielding all round with Wilson, in particular, hurling himself about to good effect.

Disappointments:

* Not our fault but disappointing that Northants always gave the impression (bowling and batting) that a draw was good enough for them.

* Some of our bowling. Yasir Arafat again ended wicketless. It was clear that Meaker was Hyphen's 'go to' bowler. That's a deserved compliment to Meaker but doesn't say much for Arafat, our new overseas bowler. Viscount only bowled two overs and was taken off for good after his second proved expensive - I thought he could have had a further spell in light of his success on Saturday. Batty's bowling at best was 'adequate'.

* The realisation that you rarely get a second chance at this level. As Carrot says, we should have scored more in our first innings and got max batting points. We should then have got 'em all out for less and much sooner in their first innings - it was lack of time to dismiss them a second time that finally did for us.