Surrey vs Leicestershire LV=County Championship

Surrey have named a twelve man squad for the LV=County Championship game against Leicestershire starting on Sunday at the Kia Oval.
Tom Curran is unavailable due to a slight calf strain    but Tim Linley is named in the squad after recovering from the side strain that has kept him out of Championship action in recent weeks.
Hashim Amla will play his final game for the county before returning to South Africa for their upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
The Surrey squad to play Leicestershire in the LV=County Championship at the Kia Oval on Sunday 22nd June, Monday 23rd June, Tuesday 24th June and Wednesday 25th June:
Gary Wilson (capt)
Hashim Amla
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Rory Burns
Jade Dernbach
Steven Davies
Matthew Dunn
Tim Linley
Jason Roy
Vikram Solanki
Chris Tremlett

Thanks, JimBob.

Hopefully, we can build on last week's win. Good to see the Viscount back in the squad although I think he might miss out on the eleven.

"@JackSheldon93: Surrey have won the toss and are batting at The Oval"

"@JackSheldon93: Surrey: Burns, Ansari, Amla, Solanki, Davies, Roy, Wilson (c&wk), Batty, Tremlett, Dunn, Dernbach"

"@JackSheldon93: Leics: Boyce, Robson, Eckersley, Redfern, Cobb (c), O'Brien (wk), Taylor, Raine, Naik, Buck, Shreck"

Let's hope Jigar Naik (who has done well against Surrey in the past) doesn't use this match to audition for the England spinner vacancy!!

both openers fall cheaply

Fifty for Amla at better than a run a ball

Showing his class evidently

coming up to lunch please solanki   

Very impt session coming up. If these 2 can still Be there at tea, they'll have done Leics a lot of damage. But if they go early, it could be a very different story. JimBob - Solanki also has a reputation for falling just after the break so he's not out of the woods yet!

Amla and Davies fall quickly after lunch. In trouble now at 127 - 4.   

Collapsing seems to catching - Somerset and Warks among the other teams losing wickets like there's no tomorrow.

50 for roy   

50 for solanki   

3rd wkt for the medium pace bowler taylor   

roy gives his wkt away   

50 partnership between Wilson and Tremlett  

...And now they take us past 300 and a third batting point.

Evening chaps, more runs for Roy and a great fightback from Wilson/Tremlett after the wobble. Decent day, that.

Slightly off topic, but does Pietersen only have a T20 contract with Surrey?

Another more than useful knock from Tremlett. I did think when I posted early this morning it was his batting that might edge the Viscount out. You don't really want Linley, Dunn and Dernbach at 9, 10, Jack if you can avoid it.

Credit to Amla and Roy for their contributions but a shade disappointing they couldn't convert their 70s into hundreds. That would have made our decent position now all the more convincing.

LondonTiger wrote:Slightly off topic, but does Pietersen only have a T20 contract with Surrey?

Tiger - pretty much yes. There is a contract clause permitting him to play CC as well but only if agreeable to the player and the club. Covered in more detail on page 1 of the "Surrey v Derbys LV CC" thread.

I think Surrey are entitled to say they had the best of day one, though Leics were on top for good parts of the day.

Amla looked superb. It looked like he was heading for an inevitable 100 and press box talk had even got on to whether he could challenge his 311 from 2012. A bit premature perhaps, but his being bowled off an inside edge came out of nowhere.

Two wickets had already gone down early on and when Amla was quickly followed by Davies Leics were certainly on top. The Solanki-Roy partnership in the afternoon session was a very entertaining one. Solanki got a pretty good ball (though there are always question marks when a good batsman gets clean bowled) but Roy's attempt to go over the top which resulted in him being stumped was a little reckless given the situation.

All credit to Tremlett and Wilson. Tremlett's knock was a proper one, not a tail-enders counter-attack. Like with many bowlers his batting form seems to have varied considerably across his career but he looks to be the very decent number nine that he was earlier in his career once again.

I thought Leicestershire bowled well within the limitations of their attack (they have injuries as well as a lack of real stand-outs). Ben Raine was the weak link but that was made up for by the new ball bowlers and in particular Rob Taylor, who deserved his three-for.

Report - http://deepextracover.com/2014/06/22/amla-sets-the-tone-as-surrey-shade-day-one/#.U6c4qhZOjt0

Comment piece, mainly on Leics - http://deepextracover.com/2014/06/22/familiar-story-for-leicestershire-as-surrey-are-let-off-the-hook/

I am elsewhere tomorrow (covering an associate tournament for CricketEurope) but back at The Oval for the last two days.

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Re KP, it sounds very much as if he isn't going to play Championship cricket. When Graham Ford was asked a few weeks back he said that he hadn't even opened that discussion. Essentially KP's contract covers T20 cricket. When that deal was signed he did hint that he would play in the Champo on Twitter but I think that relies on him offering to play and I doubt that will happen now, particularly as he has the Caribbean T20 starting soon. If Surrey do find themselves in a promotion race at the end of the season then perhaps he might sense the call to arms.

Thanks for the interesting reports Shelsey.    

Tremlett's batting form has certainly come and gone over a period. He's managed over 2000 runs, including 8 half centuries, in his first class career.  Hope he betters his previous highest score of 64 tomorrow.....

Anyone got a spare room I can move into ? Amla was batting so beautifully yesterday morning I bet my house on him making a century and the groundstaff didn't like it this morning when they rolled back the covers and found me sleeping under them.   

Very good, Beehive! Very good! Your bet certainly tallies with the pressbox chatter according to Shelsey. There again, how often do you see a poor bookmaker?    

Thinking more about yesterday's performance, I really feel we didn't make things count nearly as much as we should have done -

- winning toss and batting in very good conditions for the willow

- apparently one short boundary

- 3 batsmen getting past 50 but no one going on to produce a game making innings

- with all due respect (which, as we all know, means very little) Leics are propping up the table and are a very ordinary side.

Ah well, lets see what today brings. Hope to go along tomorrow.

Both the skipper and the big man get to 50.    

We certainly would have been in a mess if they had got, say, 10 runs between them rather than over a 100. Imo we shouldn't have allowed Leics to get so close to such a position.

150 partnership    

Corporalhumblebucket wrote: Tremlett's batting form has certainly come and gone over a period. He's managed over 2000 runs, including 8 half centuries, in his first class career.  Hope he betters his previous highest score of 64 tomorrow.....

Well he's certainly done that handsomely with this innings!  One of the more unlikely combos for a 150 partnership

409/7 with Tremlett and Wilson both into the 80s.

Brilliant stuff from them although I do think it backs up my point that the others should have done better y'day.

Tremlett eventually out for 90, while Wilson gets only his third first class century.

Wilson passes his previous highest first class score (125).      We've had a fair bit of that recently for Surrey - Ansari (twice), Burns, Roy, Wilson Tremlett, Curran. Must be a good sign.

50 partnership   

150 for wilson        

500 up   

522 for 9 declared   
now 20 wkts please   

By my reckoning, that gives us 6 overs before tea. Very shrewd captaincy by Wilson as well as a tremendous innings. Credit as well to Dernbach for sticking with him at the end - life continues to be full of surprises!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Wilson passes his previous highest first class score (125).      We've had a fair bit of that recently for Surrey - Ansari (twice), Burns, Roy, Wilson Tremlett, Curran. Must be a good sign.

Corporal - I'm unsure quite how loudly we should broadcast Curran's recent career best of 9 not out but I fully take your general point!   

guildfordbat wrote:

Corporal - I'm unsure quite how loudly we should broadcast Curran's recent career best of 9 not out but I fully take your general point!   

Guilford -    (I did of course omit "Clive" Dunn who also achieved his highest score a few matches ago.  )

47 - 2. A wicket each for Tremlett and Dernbach. Batty brought into the attack after 15 overs.....

Voice of the Beehive wrote:Anyone got a spare room I can move into ?  Amla was batting so beautifully yesterday morning I bet my house on him making a century and the groundstaff didn't like it this morning when they rolled back the covers and found me sleeping under them.   

   

dunn strikes with 9 balls left   

jimbobgooner wrote:dunn strikes with 9 balls left   

Very important wicket from Clive. Robson was suggesting he might star in a Leics runfest. Good chance now that we'll be able to enforce the follow on tomorrow. As Jonny Barran would say, ''day three is moving day'' - likely to determine where the game goes.

Anyway, an excellent second day for Surrey after we failed to properly take advantage yesterday. Great credit to Wilson and Tremlett, the latter unfortunate not to get a maiden ton.

Shelsey - if you're looking in - noticed in your DEC preview, you referred to Dunn and Linley being in contention for the final place in the eleven. Was that your own take on things or did you have some inside info? I actually believed Dunn was very likely to play and that the last spot was far more between Tremlett and Linley (Dunn's bowled more successfully than Tremlett in recent weeks and I feel there was a genuine element to him being ''rested'' last week; also Stewart and Ford appear keen where possible to include young players, like Dunn and Curran, in the CC side). I honestly thought it was Tremlett's batting that would get him the nod over Linley although never expected him to end up with 90! Thanks.

A little statistical quirk relating to Tremlett's innings - it contained singles, twos, threes, fours, a five and a six. This almost matched Alviro Peterson's incredible feat against Surrey in 2011 when his innings of 210 contained all of these plus, remarkably, a seven.

Still doesn't seem much in the wicket yet but I think Robson's wicket was an important one. Am hoping Surrey knock over the night watchman a lot quicker than the previous time they faced one.

177-7, this looks worryingly good!

Goochie - at the ground. Normality restored as Wilson drops 'Purple' off Dernbach. To be fair, a hard low chance down the legside.

Sorry to be the jinx with my earlier post guildford! He's becoming a Purple pain!

Yes, Goochie,a shame we couldn't separate O'Brien and the Raine man before lunch but still very much our session.

Dunn clearly told to bowl fast and not to worry about the runs. Whilst he did bowl some stuff that was too wide and got punished, he was a bit unlucky early on when Cobb and Buck tookhim on and got away with it without either batsman looking fully in control. He had to content himself with one wicket in the opening over and a stunning run out - swooped on the ball in the covers and with his throw knocked the middle stump out of the ground without seeming to touch the other two.

Batty and Ansari now on after lunch, both bowling well and each amongst the wickets as Leics fall to 232/9.

Wilson has switched the bowlers regularly and sensibly on a very hot day. Assuming we enforce the follow on, all the bowlers will be tired tonight.

I must admit to being mightily impressed with 'Harold's' captaincy. I thought Nora was a cert to take over from Smith, having led well in difficult times previously.
We could have a couple of hours batting with the 270ish lead we should have from first inns. Set them 400 and have an hour tonight and all day tomorrow. A fourth day pitch with the spin twins in action.............what could possibly go wrong?!

Charlie Shreck looks as he learned his batting from the village blacksmith!

Dernbach collapses when bowling and after being looked at by the physio hobbles off. Possible hamstring injury being suggested. Not good news.

Afternoon all

271 all out a lead of 251 surrey enforce the follow on