surrey vs durham county championship

First topic message reminder :

Team Director Chris Adams has named a thirteen man squad for the LV=County Championship match against Durham starting on Friday.
Gareth Batty will captain Surrey in the absence of Graeme Smith. Stuart Meaker returns to the squad having missed the past two games with a thigh injury and Jason Roy is included in the squad.
The Surrey squad to play Durham in the LV=County Championship at the Kia Oval on Friday 10th May, Saturday 11th May, Sunday 12th May, Monday 13th May :
Gareth Batty (capt)
Rory Burns
Arun Harinath
Vikram Solanki
Zander de Bruyn
Gary Wilson
Steven Davies
Jason Roy
Stuart Meaker
Tim Linley
Jade Dernbach
Gary Keedy
Chris Tremlett
keedy and viscount to miss out for me
one thing i would like to see is wilson coming in before the brain with the brain bowling so much i dont thinks its right that wilson comes in after.what do you thing chaps?

Disappointing morning although probably predictable. We really needed a half century plus from Wilson.

The bowlers now have not only got to take wickets but also put the brakes on the batsmen. Following up Goochie's post, not much benefit at this stage in getting a wicket every 10 overs if Durham continue to go at 4.5 per over.

25 miles or so south of the Oval, it's breezy but dry with a mix of cloud and blue sky so don't see the weather saving us. If Keedy doesn't do something this afternoon, expect a lot of flak to come his way and even more in Adams' direction. 5 wicket win for Durham is my guess ....

less then a hundred to win

Highest stand of the match comes on the final afternoon, on a wearing, turning, unpredictable 'lottery' of a pitch............well bowled lads!

100 up

Keedy moves on to double nelson! to add to his no runs and no catches!

wkt for batty

126-3 Meaker takes a wicket! 55 to win..................put Keedy back on!!

126-4!!!!

guildfordbat wrote: 5 wicket win for Durham is my guess ....

tea durham need 32 to win
surrey need 6 wkts

wkt for keedy
calm down gooch

game over

I'm no fan of De Bruyn, but he took 3 wickets in the first innings yet didn't even get an over in the 2nd. Was he injured or were Surrey trying to lose the game?

Surprisingly, Durham's first ever win at the Oval
Worrying times for a desperately poor Surrey team
Where do we go from here? Well apart from Division Two! I can't see how we can ever play Keedy again - he's nearly 38, he's unlikely to 'improve' is he?!
The top half of the batting is 'ok' at best, but the bowling is woeful - as I stated in an earlier post - should we always put the oppo in and hope for a declaration?! cos these lot aren't going to get 20 wickets to win a match! Views anyone?

Completely agree Gooch. Why these issues are never addressed in the close season is beyond me. All we do each year is get in players well past their best who are up for a last good payday. Last year we got in Lewis (great signing - not) - this year its Solanki and Keedy. We are the richest county and should be nicking players in their mid-20s not late 30s.

Also we must have the worst tail in the country - oh to have Martin Bicknell again.

So much in that game should have been going in our favour but a lack of quality and far too many mistakes and we end up losing comfortably. We won the toss and batted first after picking two spinners on a turning pitch. We were 221/4 in first innings and all out 237. Harinath, Solanki and Davies all got themselves out when well set in the first innings and another 4 or so of them did again in the second. What I will say though is that until this match people have been getting hundreds, Solanki is most culpable for getting starts and nothing more.

However I would say that more damning than that was the fact that 2 extremely experienced spinners on a turning pitch on the 4th day struggled to have any effect on the game at all. In fact our bowling in general is nowhere near as effective as it should be.

I am not happy.

Carrot - good post. Particularly concerning to contrast the match figures of Keedy with those of debutant Buckley and Borthwick who looked no more than ordinary on day one when I saw him.

PS Carrot - you play at week-end?

No unfortunately my services were not required on Saturday as the second of the two matches scheduled got called off as we didn't have enough players

Hopefully should start outdoor nets soon though which will be good

Certainly a severe embarrassment that Keedy failed to deliver in this match on a turning pitch.

There is also a particular issue with Meaker. I think that most Surrey supporters would recognise that he will often be our most potent threat. But there is not much of a mid point with him - when he is not on top form he can be pretty much "unbowlable", leaking running at an alarming rate. It's difficult to plan round that. A typical time for him to bowl badly is on return from a lay off, when presumably he hasn't recaptured his rhythm.

Carrotdude wrote:No unfortunately my services were not required on Saturday as the second of the two matches scheduled got called off as we didn't have enough players

Hopefully should start outdoor nets soon though which will be good

A disappointment I'm afraid you'll have to get used to playing in the lower leagues... hugely frustrating, particularly as that one week where you have a full-strength side it tends to rain!

Still, its great fun when you do get on the field and, if you are short of numbers, I'm sure you'll get plenty of chances to get back into it and maybe get into a team where you don't sometimes end up with not enough players!