Surrey vs Kent Spitfires T20 Blast

Surrey have named a thirteen man squad for the NatWest T20 Blast game against the Kent Spitfires this evening at the Kia Oval.
Rory burns and Matthew dunn replace chris tremlett and tom jewell.
The Surrey squad to play the Kent Spitfires in the NatWest T20 Blast at the Kia Oval on Wednesday 2nd July :
Gary Wilson (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Rory Burns
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Matthew Dunn
Kevin O’Brien
Azhar Mahmood
Robin Peterson
Kevin Pietersen
Jason Roy

Cheers, JimBob.

Looks like Dunn or Davies will replace Tremlett. Logically, it would be Dunn. However, we did have a spare bowler last time out when Curran didn't get to turn his arm at all - that might allow us now to play the extra batsman. Not easy to call. Suspect Dunn will get the nod but could go either way.

Can't see Burns being anything other than a bench warmer.

Hope Jewell gets a go in some form of first team cricket before the end of the season. If there were awards for being mucked about, that guy would win every time.

Kent squad

Rob Key (c)
Adam Ball
Daniel Bell-Drummond
Sam Billings (w)
Alex Blake
Mitch Claydon
Fabian Cowdrey
Charlie Hartley
Ben Harmison
Sam Northeast
Adam Riley
Darren Stevens
James Tredwell

surrey win toss and will bowl
burns and dunn miss out

Wrong again! Davies comes in whilst Dunn joins Burns on the bench.

Surrey win toss and bowl.

is there a echo in here   

game being shown on sky sports 2   

So er Jason Roy is in fairly good touch!  

What a performance again by Jason Roy. I've run out of superlatives for him this season.

Obviously he was the matchwinner but there were good bowling performances by Peterson and Batty and a superb nineteenth over by Tom Curran backed up by Azhar at the death.

As for Kent, Fabian Cowdrey looks a handy T20 player. Nice innings, second successive T20 fifty at The Oval and a decent spell with the ball. Typical knock from Darren Stevens. Kent are going to find him and Bob Key leave a big (no pun intended) hole in their side when they eventually call it a day.

Back to Surrey and what a game that could be on Friday at Chelmsford where we have suffered a few nightmares in the past. That will be Kevin O'Brien's last game for Surrey before flying out for the Caribbean Premier League.

Olly - indeed!  I didn't see the match but he really is going through a purple patch at the moment.  In 8 T20 matches this season he has scored 6 half centuries.     He has scored 442 runs in T20 so far this season.

Just watched the match recorded on Sky. Wow! Another tremendous innings from Jason Roy - nice not to be the only one talking about him!

Very much agree with Beehive's post about the value of Curran's and Mahmood's 19th and 20th overs. It did look just before them that Kent might total 175 which would have appeared a lot more challenging.

Whilst our bowling was generally okay (a few too many wides though), some of our fielding was sloppy. The odd misfield and overthrow together with a couple of dropped catches. No such mistake from Roy though with a very clever catch right next to the boundary rope, perfecly combining awareness and calmness. You just couldn't keep him out of things tonight!

Apologies for going a little off topic but who would you guys pick in Dilshan's place tomorrow ?

I guess Burns is the most likely with Davies or KP moving up to open. Alternatively if the wicket looks suited to seam bowling is the batting strong enough to absorb bolstering the fast bowling ?

Beehive - that's a very good and extremely difficult question.

I would move Davies up top to open with Roy. Not saying that will definitely happen but that's the easy part for me. Playing as an opener is probably Davies' best spot in t20.

The real difficulty is what type of player replaces Dilshan, never mind which particular player. As well as being opening bat, Dilshan has also been a main bowler in his couple of t20 games. That to my mind seriously counts against Burns - he would appear rather wasted tucked down the order around 7 or 8 as he surely would be and even more certainly not going to bowl.

Perhaps bring in an all rounder like Kapil or Jewell at 8 with the view that they could bowl a couple of overs if required (I'm assuming Kapil is now ok to bowl). They're also both good fielders. It would seem fairer to include Jewell given he was in the squad for the Hants game. There again, fairness long went out of the window as far as Jewell is concerned. He also had a torrid time at Chelmsford a year or so back in a rare one day outing.

If we really want to boost the bowling and the wicket looks seamer friendly, the best bet might be to bring in Tremlett (I think he's above Dunn in the t20 selection pecking order despite Dunn regularly being on the bench). That would weaken the fielding although he hasn't seemed quite so dreadful in that regard this season. For a further spin option and a really left field choice we could consider Freddie Burger Van.

Unless the wicket cries out for a particular type of bowler, I would plump for Kapil as long as he's fully fit. I wouldn't put any money on it though!

Same 13 man squad retained apart from Dilshan replaced by Tremlett - one of the (several!) options above.

Looking to me that it might be a straight swap, Tremlett for Dilshan. Couldn't be less like for like in any way  

I think the short straight boundaries at Chelmsford may make Surrey want the extra pace option though Tremlett has been hit over those very boundaries a few times in the past. Burns or Solanki will get their chance starting next Friday after KOB has gone.

The very mention of Chelmsford (or Napier for that matter) brings me out in a cold sweat, not anything to do with the ground or a bust up I once had with their former Chief Exec, but that game that Styris took away from us and of course Sagagate when we fielded a team fuelled by Horlicks and Werthers Original plus Jewell and got mullered.

Voice of the Beehive wrote:
The very mention of Chelmsford (or Napier for that matter) brings me out in a cold sweat, not anything to do with the ground or a bust up I once had with their former Chief Exec, but that game that Styris took away from us and of course Sagagate when we fielded a team fuelled by Horlicks and Werthers Original plus Jewell and got mullered.

Painful memories   Let's hope they are excised tonight!