surrey vs Worcestershire LV=County Championship

First topic message reminder :

Squads have been announced for the game starting tomorrow. A strong showing from the Worcestershire academy in both sides....!

Surrey:- Gary Wilson (capt), Zafar Ansari, Gareth Batty, Rory Burns, Jade Dernbach, Steven Davies, Matthew Dunn, Arun Harinath, Aneesh Kapil, Jason Roy, Vikram Solanki, Chris Tremlett

Worcester:- Darryl Mitchell (capt), Matt Pardoe, Moeen Ali, Tom Fell, Alexei Kervezee, Ross Whiteley, Ben Cox (wkt), Joe Leach, Jack Shantry, Saeed Ajmal, Charlie Morris & Richie Oliver (12th man)

Worcestershire have already announced that they will be unchanged from the rain ruined affair at Tunbridge Wells and will be hoping to be able to complete an away CC game for the first time this season having had the better of the three rain affected draws in Hampshire, Glamorgan and Kent. The Surrey squad is an interesting one with the return of Solanki, who I understood to be out with injury for some time to come. I generally find it nigh on impossible to predict Surrey bowling attacks due to your embarrassment of riches in the seam department, but I expect ex Worcester lad Kapil is probably the most likely to miss out?

136 - 4 Ansari goes for a patient 62. Will we see repeat of first innings collapse?

Worcester have finally dismissed Ansari for 62 from 156, caught Ajmal off Morris. Very impressive showing from the left hander.

Looks like we've escaped with a draw and 5 extra points as the rain pours down at the Oval.

Ansari's efforts aside, we're mighty lucky to get away with that. A pretty feeble performance from Surrey. As Beehive buzzed earlier, Worcs have shown that they are anything but a one man team. They certainly both surprised and impressed me.

Pack - it was good having you on board. I hope you'll regularly put in an appearance on the Surrey threads whether we're playing Worcs or others.

Possibly spoke too soon.

Play to resume at 4.45 with up to 20 overs left. Should be able to see that off but a quick wicket or even two would make it very anxious ....

Draw confirmed. A sensible and decent effort by Surrey today between the showers but it remains very concerning that we seem incapable of doing that over each day of a Championship match.

Good to see Davies in the runs...at least a better effort with the bat second time around...lets be thankful for small mercies....Worcs can feel hard done by...outplayed us for virtually the entire match... Only the weather saved us from another defeat 

Not much to say about today. There was less rain than the forecast suggested, with mainly heavy showers rather than the set in rain that was predicted. The 42 overs that Worcestershire had in the end could easily have been enough and so Surrey did quite well today to get home for the draw without major mishaps. Davies batted nicely and it was collectively a strong performance against Ajmal.

Interestingly Graham Ford said at the close that they worked very hard on how to bat against Ajmal in the week, perhaps so hard that he admitted they might have neglected preparing for the unique threat that Shantry poses.

I wrote about the Surrey captaincy situation today, coming to the conclusion that Ansari may be the best option despite his youth - http://deepextracover.com/2014/06/04/ansari-could-be-the-man-to-turn-around-surreys-captaincy-fortunes/

Shelsey - there's something of an expectation at the Oval that Ansari will captain the side. He's an intelligent individual and cricketer. The question is when.

Although Hamilton-Brown and Ansari are as different as can be, I think there's a reluctance today to appoint another 22 year old. My take is that whilst Ansari definitely has the required maturity, some greater experience is also sought.

Stewart confirmed at the members' forum this week that Wilson was to ''remain captain for the foreseeable future''. He also commented upon the need for the captain to be a regular in the team and suggested that had ruled Batty out this season. Wilson can probably be regarded as a shoe in for the team, albeit somewhat fortunately due to Davies giving up the keepers' gloves and our having almost no reserve batsmen. After his performance in the Worcs match, Ansari is now almost certainly in the ''regular'' category although may have been borderline when Smith left the scene.

guildfordbat wrote:Shelsey - there's something of an expectation at the Oval that Ansari will captain the side. He's an intelligent individual and cricketer. The question is when.

Although Hamilton-Brown and Ansari are as different as can be, I think there's a reluctance today to appoint another 22 year old. My take is that whilst Ansari definitely has the required maturity, some greater experience is also sought.

Stewart confirmed at the members' forum this week that Wilson was to ''remain captain for the foreseeable future''. He also commented upon the need for the captain to be a regular in the team and suggested that had ruled Batty out this season. Wilson can probably be regarded as a shoe in for the team, albeit somewhat fortunately due to Davies giving up the keepers' gloves and our having almost no reserve batsmen. After his performance in the Worcs match, Ansari is now almost certainly in the ''regular'' category although may have been borderline when Smith left the scene.

I agree with you, though I'd question whether Wilson's place is that secure. He hasn't exactly been scoring heaps of runs of late and if Davies returns to keeping duties, something Ford admittedly says won't happen immediately, you'd think his place would be under threat (with an overseas to come back in).

Shelsey93 wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Shelsey - there's something of an expectation at the Oval that Ansari will captain the side. He's an intelligent individual and cricketer. The question is when.

Although Hamilton-Brown and Ansari are as different as can be, I think there's a reluctance today to appoint another 22 year old. My take is that whilst Ansari definitely has the required maturity, some greater experience is also sought.

Stewart confirmed at the members' forum this week that Wilson was to ''remain captain for the foreseeable future''. He also commented upon the need for the captain to be a regular in the team and suggested that had ruled Batty out this season. Wilson can probably be regarded as a shoe in for the team, albeit somewhat fortunately due to Davies giving up the keepers' gloves and our having almost no reserve batsmen. After his performance in the Worcs match, Ansari is now almost certainly in the ''regular'' category although may have been borderline when Smith left the scene.

I agree with you, though I'd question whether Wilson's place is that secure. He hasn't exactly been scoring heaps of runs of late and if Davies returns to keeping duties, something Ford admittedly says won't happen immediately, you'd think his place would be under threat (with an overseas to come back in).

Shelsey - I certainly understand why you have reservations about Wilson's place in the side. It owes more at the moment to the misfortunes of others than stunning performances on his part. In particular, Solanki's situation, Sibley's exams (and the youngster being unable to buy a run this season which may keep him out when he returns) and Davies giving up keeping for the timebeing. I'm pretty sure those sort of factors influenced Stewart's comment about Wilson's captaincy being for the ''foreseeable future'' - the steer being that it was certainly beyond the next game but not necessarily to the end of the season.