Surrey vs Leicestershire LV=County Championship

Surrey have named a fourteen man squad for the LV=County Championship match against Leicestershire at Grace Road starting on Friday.
Jason Roy comes back into the squad having been rested for the recent one day game against Durham after being struck on the finger whilst playing for the England Lions and Zafar Ansari is named having returned to full fitness.
Tillakaratne Dilshan will play his final game for Surrey before returning to Sri Lanka but Jade Dernbach and Matthew Dunn have not been considered for selection as they are not 100% fit.
The Surrey squad to play Leicestershire in the LV=County Championship at Grace Road on Friday 15th August, Saturday 16th August, Sunday 17th August and Monday 18th August :
Gary Wilson (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Rory Burns
Steven Davies
Tillakaratne Dilshan
George Edwards
Arun Harinath
Aneesh Kapil
Tim Linley
Stuart Meaker
Jason Roy
Vikram Solanki
Chris Tremlett

Thanks for the update jimbob!
Difficult to name the team, apart from Kapil missing out!
I'll guess at Harinath and Boy George Edwards to also miss out!

Hi folks - apologies for absence on parade, Corporal. Holiday and then a few boring things.

We don't seem to have set the world on fire in the 50 over game whilst I've been away. Mixed feelings about that - we have other irons in the fire (as per Olly on the "v Warks" thread), useful to rest some of the older hands and see what the younger fringe players can do. Against that, it's always very difficult to redicover momentum once lost. Probably the most disappointing aspect was that the senior players who stayed in the side didn't step up enough - bit like the start of this LVCC season.

Anyway, as for this 4 dayer, hope the weather allows sufficient time for a positive result. I go along with Goochie in that I think Kapil and Harinath will miss out - I wouldn't mind either playing but hard to see how they can be squeezed in. The final place imo will be between George (aka "Chick" and "Boy") Edwards and the Viscount. The latter was disappointing in the last CC match at Guildford and so might just miss out to the young speedster - very hard to call.

Welcome back Guildford - have you seen the unsurprising news re Jewell?

Hi Corporal - yes, I saw the news about Tom Jewell yesterday. Unsurprising as you say but still disappointing. He never did quite enough to demand selection so I understand and don't disagree with the decision. However, I don't feel the Club comes out of it well - we should have made a decision to play him or release him two or three years ago rather than keep him on the edges rotting away.

My man Spiller is typically on the money when he writes in today's Surrey Ad, "Perhaps he suffered from the lack of interest in developing young players which permeated Chris Adams' time in charge".

I wish him well although feel it'll be very hard for him to find another county gig.

Surrey 51-2 off 11 - quick for us but already 2 down in a game that we have to win.

72-3 now - we really need 400 on the board.

200 for 3 off 39 overs.    Solanki and Davies rattling off the boundaries.

Solanki falls for a brisk 93. Need to make sure we pass 400....

250 - 4 after 47 overs.  Still racing along....

282 - 5 Roy goes for a rapid 42.  Partnership of 75 in 11 overs.  

afternoon all 3rd batting point up   

Harold goes for a duck. Batty started rapidly.

Davies goes to his century.   

100 for davies         

4th batting point   

Batty, Tremlett and Meaker have helped Davies to add another 100.  Frenetic scoring rate dropped right back and now Surrey inching towards a fifth batting point. 391 - 8.

5th batting point   

400 up and 5 batting points at the end of day one after being put in - happily settle for that.

Davies and his future at the Oval remains a mystery but he certainly produced the goods yesterday. Useful contributions and support from the tail as well (great contrast from last season). A valuable innings also from Solanki although - as so often with him - leaving us wanting just a little bit more.

We now need the weather to continue to behave and the bowlers to build on the good work of the batters. Particularly important match for the Viscount - with Chick Edwards breathing down his neck for a starting place and others coming back from injury, Linners could find himself well down the pecking order if he doesn't deliver here.

PS Excellent call from Goochie early yesterday as to the starting eleven.

Leics 303 - 7 in reply to Surrey's 480. Further useful runs from Davies and Meaker in the morning.  Since then Surrey plugging away.  A partnership of 99 between O'Brien and Taylor held Surrey up, but two wickets near the end of play mean there is still a chance of Surrey getting a significant first innings lead.  Batty has bowled 20 overs and taken 3 for 34, whereas other Surrey bowlers have struggled both to contain the scoring rate and to take wickets.

guildfordbat wrote:400 up and 5 batting points at the end of day one after being put in - happily settle for that.

Davies and his future at the Oval remains a mystery but he certainly produced the goods yesterday. Useful contributions and support from the tail as well (great contrast from last season). A valuable innings also from Solanki although - as so often with him - leaving us wanting just a little bit more.

We now need the weather to continue to behave and the bowlers to build on the good work of the batters. Particularly important match for the Viscount - with Chick Edwards breathing down his neck for a starting place and others coming back from injury, Linners could find himself well down the pecking order if he doesn't deliver here.

PS Excellent call from Goochie early yesterday as to the starting eleven.

Hi Guildford. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Davies and his future (or possibly lack of) at the Oval. I'm sure we had a similar discussion a couple of years ago following the Maynard tragedy. Is it known whether he still WANTS to keep? I'm aware that his reason for giving up the gloves was to rediscover batting form and, from a distance at least, that seems to have worked in the main. If he now has three other keepers in the 1st team squad to compete with surely at least one could be expected to move on? Is it still believed to be the case that he isnt particularly happy in the big smoke?

He was always one of my favourite players at Worcester as a kid and, whilst I think a return to New Road is very unlikely for him, it'd be fascinating to know if he's likely to be making more appearances oop north next year - Notts seems a good bet IMO.

Hi Pack - good questions re Davies. I'll have a stab at answers but, with no inside info on the player, doubt that I can do your post justice.

Davies is on record as saying that Maynard's death badly affected him. Apologies for any cod psycho analysis on my part but I suspect that's still the case. Having given up the gloves, he regularly looks a lonely and isolated figure at the Oval and in the field. I do wonder if it's not so much him being unhappy at the Oval but unhappy in himself.

The newish (to this forum) and excellent Surrey poster Voice of the Beehive commented a few weeks ago that he understood Davies wasn't practicing his keeping any more. Unknown how permanent or temporary that is.

All rather odd and Foakes' signing adds to my uncertainty. That would seem to signal the end of Davies keeping for Surrey but it doesn't necessarily usher him out of the exit door as (unless new signings are made) we still need his batting, as well shown yesterday. If Foakes keeps - and I assume he wouldn't have signed without some sort of guarantee - then where does that leave Wilson who has done a good job as skipper since Smith left and joined his wife on her world wide shopping trip? Even with our batting limitations, Wilson may struggle to hold a place as just a batsman.

Best I can do. Sorry there are more questions than answers.

Leicester avoid the follow on - while Hants look well-set to beat Kent. Looks like Div 2 again next season.

lunch a lead of 140

A bit disappointing that we couldn't take the final 3 Leics wickets quicker this morning but we've still obtained max bonus points and are clearly on top. Ideally, crack on from here and look to declare late today so as to give them an uncomfortable 6 overs or so before stumps ....

Lead up to 250 with 8 wickets in hand. No fireworks yet, but steady accumulation with scoring at somewhat over 3 an over. Good that Burns and Ansari had another century opening stand.

As Dilshan's last innings for Surrey ends (stumped for 35) rain stops play again with the lead on 274

weather is killing us   

100 for third degree         

At least they are back out again.  Burns moves to his century.    Could do with a bit more urgency in the scoring rate tho!

On Cue, Burns is out and Roy   comes to the wicket.

...And then it starts to rain again.   

raining again   

324 lead at stumps is it enough?

The weather was on my mind at start of play today but decided to say nothing as we couldn't influence it. However, maybe we could have pushed the score on a little more. Hard to call as if we had ended up 30/3 off 6 overs Leics would have had their tails up and been right back in the game. Probably the real disappointment today (besides the rain) was our failure to get the last 3 Leics wickets more quickly.

Unless the weather first thing tomorrow or the forecast is poor, I would be inclined to bat another 5 or 6 overs and go hell for leather. Try to add about 40 more runs in that time. Should give us a bit more breathing space and still allow enough overs to take 10 wickets. The bowling though will need to be more consistent than first time round.

Meaker is keeping both teams in this game! 3-89 off 13 overs
Leics are 4 wickets down but above the required rate, and still appear to be going for it! 125-4.........great match!

Raining again game over another year in division 2   

Even with some of today lost to rain, I'm surprised we only had enough time to bowl 56 overs. I do hope we didn't agree to call things off early.