Surrey V Leicestershire

First topic message reminder :

Surrey have named a very interesting 13 man squad for the CC game against Leicestershire starting on Wednesday. Ramps and Tremlett are both available with Wilson and Brown both left out. This means that we will have a brand new opening pair of, I assume, Ramps and Davies. That would leave de Bruyn, RHB, Maynard and Roy as the rest of the batting and then 7 bowlers fighting for 5 places. Probably Linley and Schofiled to miss out do we think? Tremlett, Meaker and Dernbach as a front 3 bowling attack looks pretty good but out batting looks a bit weak.

Rory Hamilton-Brown (Captain)
Jason Roy
Mark Ramprakash
Zander de Bruyn
Steven Davies (Wicket Keeper)
Tom Maynard
Gareth Batty
Chris Schofield
Stuart Meaker
Chris Tremlett
Yasir Arafat
Tim Linley
Jade Dernbach

Edit: after reading the article it appears that Hyphen and Roy will be opening together which I really don't agree with tbh. Can't see either of them lasting too well against the new ball

Seven down now. Meaker with a couple. He was fast yesterday but, unlike last season, with regular control and direction. Almost certainly our most improved player over the last year.

Little Jimmy still hanging in there but even he won't be able to protect the Leics tail indefinitely ....

Hi everyone,

Wow. Just got home to see that we won really easily today, how fantastic! Shame for Ramps to not get 100 but he did what was needed, as usual. I agree with Depressed about the bowling unit, I really like it, Jade is back in the wickets and Meaker has become very consistent. The report on Cricinfo from yesterday was very glowing in their review of him and it's very good to hear that he is bowling fast with control - perfect for getting tailenders you would think. He now has 19 wickets at 16 by my calculations. Impressive stuff.

What a great day.

As Carrot says, a great day. Well done to all.

I wonder how many future England players have played in this match? Roy and Taylor to name two but a few more I suspect ....

It was nice to have 3 'home grown' players do a lot of the work in this match (Meaker, Dernbach and Roy). To answer your query guildford, I think there is a good chance that all 3 will play for England at some point.

What a thoroughly good display all round. The changes were all justified, and certainly the change in the pitch! That's 3 on the trot since the surrender against Middlesex, and I second the comments about the bowling unit..........just need Yasser to improve a bit, but well done to all!

Question: where does KP fit in to this line up for the next CC game? I assume he'll have to play as practice for the Tests but our captain is the only batsman who you could justify dropping. I guess Roy will have to miss out which is a shame.

First rate performance - Meaker is increasingly vital member of the team, and good to see Dernbach regain his form.

It would be a great pity to drop Roy. With only a little exaggeration the case for not dropping him could be summarised thus:

There was a young batsman named Roy
Far could he smite the ball - what a boy!
With his usual seventy six
Surrey's opening issue he did fix
And many an economy rate did destroy.

Is Dernbach and Meaker the best first change bowling attack in the division?

I can't think of any others as good.

Carrot - I went to a members' Q&A forum last night at which this was raised. It seems that Pietersen's first game earmarked for Surrey this season is the three dayer against Cambridge Uni at Fenners starting on Monday. Given that regular players are often rested for this type of game, this should allow Pietersen an initial starting place without much disquiet. After that - particularly if he flops at Fenners - who knows?

As regards any one day Surrey games in which Pietersen might play, I would have thought that Wilson's place would be most at risk. From our two CB 40 games he's got a 'did not bat' and a duck to his name.

By the way, the forum was chaired smoothly (too smoothly for my liking) by new Chief Executive Richard Gould with Tony Murphy (Non Executive Cricket Director), Steve Davies and Jason Roy in attendance. Both the players spoke sensibly and modestly. Adams did not appear. It was 'explained' that there had been a mix up with his diary and he had gone out with his dad. Members had been informed of the meeting over a month ago.

Jbd - I think the answer is undoubtedly the best.

The reality I suppose, tho' is that with England call ups and injuries we probably won't be able to field Meaker and Dernbach as first change more than about twice all season.

Also there must be a likelihood that either would displace Arafat as opening bowler unless they positively prefer to use an older ball.

I recall that last year Meaker rarely bowled in limited overs - presumably because he tended to be expensive. Is he likely to be in the limited overs team here on in? Or would we continue with policy of playing 3 spinners + only two quicks...?

Corporal,

Answering - or, perhaps, just ducking your question - I think Meaker will play more one dayers this season than last but suspect a rotation / resting policy for the seamers will still restict his appearances.

It looks like we'll regularly play at least two spinners. Spriegel's certainly started this format well and looks set to keep his place.

Cracking limerick about Roy. Look forward to the one about Yasir Arafat ....

The other problem with Pietersen in the championship side is that I wouldn't want ti split up our new opening pair, if that is who we are going to stick with, but there is no-one who could be considered worthy of dropping in his favour. Having said that there is no way he won't be picked for the game as he needs the practice for England so maybe we'll see a bowler miss out - Arafat maybe? But then he is the overseas player who Adams won't want to not pick. Confusing times. I suppose it is a nice problem to have but it won't be likely to happen often, maybe 2/3 times this season in the championship.

Carrot - I too was wondering about the possibility of Pieterson displacing Arafat if the issue arose. On the other hand it was encouraging in the last match to have confidence that our bowlers would dismiss a team twice....

Guildford - I was wondering about one about Arafat on a Middle Eastern theme - possibly also involving Chris Jordan and maybe Irani. But I'm not sure it would be all that good for international relations! So may be best ...

Corporal - a shame but probably for the best. Having upset a few on the wallpaper site with my comments about Adams' no show at the members' forum, I don't wish to encourage anything other than a diplomatic approach ....