SURREY vs NORTHAMPTONSHIRE LV=COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

For the final time this season
SURREY HAVE NAMED A THIRTEEN MAN SQUAD FOR THEIR FINAL LV=COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP GAME OF THE SEASON AGAINST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AT THE KIA OVAL STARTING TOMORROW.
Zafar Ansari is unavailable for selection due to the thumb injury he sustained in the game against Lancashire. Left arm spinner Freddie van den Bergh is named a Championship squad for the first time this season. happy corporal
The Surrey squad to play Northamptonshire in the LV=County Championship at the Kia Oval on Tuesday 22nd September, Wednesday 23rd September, Thursday 24th September and Friday 25th September:
Gareth Batty (capt)
James Burke
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Matthew Dunn
Ben Foakes
Arun Harinath
Jason Roy
Kumar Sangakkara
Freddie van den Bergh
Gary Wilson
harinath and burke to miss out again imo
over to you chaps it's been emotional

chichestersurreyfan wrote:Been dipping in and outa bit today, work permitting!..sounds an amazing day at the Oval..hope GB got to see it..Like others, slightly puzzled why we didn't carry on a bit longer rather than accepting the draw..unless the players couldn't wait to get to the champagne!..Congratulations  to Surrey..what a great season

By the way, churchy reporting that at today's  Jumblesale at the Oval, someone paid £50 for Rory Burn's jockstrap... Was that you GB?

Hi Chichester and all - yes I was there! No, I did not buy Rory Burns' jockstrap!

Incredible crazy sort of day. Summed up for me by - in the Long Room of the members' pavilion, they were selling beer at one end and giving it away free at the other!! No prizes for guessing which end you could find me!

Very well done on the season to all at the Club and everyone here.

More on the day later.

jimbobgooner wrote:christ the surrey faithful have been robbed of a exciting finish there still 18 overs left and the run rate under six very poor from surrey that  

Hi again JimBob and all - I actually think it would have been less tricky to have been set 215 in 23 overs than 33.

In both cases you have to go at a real lick. Admittedly even more in the first scenario but there if you lose early wickets you can shut up shop and don't have many overs to see out for the draw. The difficulty in the second scenario if you lose early wickets is that you clearly have more overs to survive; add to that if you're up with the run rate, do you carry on going for it or abandon attacking instincts and revert to playing safe?

I wouldn't really be critical of our approach in our second innings although a lot of supporters and members at the ground were.

We gave it a go (Roy enormously peppering the stands and members' pavilion) and signalled intent from the off with our white ball openers. However, we lost wickets too quickly. For the second time in less than a week, Burns' was significant and today utterly daft. He gave White a reckless and needless charge off only his third ball in about the sixth over and we we were then 3 down; if the ball had not hit the stumps, Murphy would have had time to buy one of the jockstraps, much admired by Chichester, from the jumble sale before making the stumping.

For me and from then on, we were always at least one wicket too many down. The Baron provided useful and sensible support for a bit - chants of 'Barry! Barry!' from the Peter May stand - but soon after he and Roy had gone, we were left needing around 90 from 17 overs. After hands were shaken on the draw, I heard a supporter say, ''One four an over needed. That would have been a doddle. They've treated us with contempt.'' I couldn't really agree. With Roy in the hutch and White taking the pace off the ball with some savvy bowling, one boundary for each of 17 overs would not have been a doddle by any means. Furthermore, we only had 5 wickets left by then and so couldn't have gone too gung-ho. If we had lost another couple of wickets, we would have been in real danger of losing a game where we had a first innings lead of 300. Some say it wouldn't have mattered if we had lost being brave but I'm not so sure - I'm thinking of the likely reaction from fickle supporters at the Oval rather than posters here.

If we're talking about not being brave, I would probably point the finger more at Northants' skipper Wakely. As I say, he had 17 overs left to try and get those 5 remaining wickets. Yes, we bat deeper these days but if Wilson or Foakes had gone, Northants would noticeably have been in the ascendancy bowling at a 17 year old with the other 3 bowlers to come.

Quick review of the Northants knock today ... TC the pick of the bowlers, he really has a lovely smooth run up and was regularly around off stump, deserved a fivefer and would have had it but for two spills at second slip by Roy (some of the crowd voiced their unhappiness and Roy offered to swap places with them in very strong terms! ? Possibly the umps will report him for that) ... Dunn, a bit down on pace I felt but stuck at it despite definitely being out of luck until late on, deserved his later wickets ... Sam, started well but lost a bit of radar and got some tap ... Batty, got a bit of turn and a wicket in his first over but never made the impact hoped for after that ... Baron, love the guy but he was innocuous - we definitely missed a 5th front line bowler - maybe Freddie, looked at the wicket at lunch, a complete dust bowl ... Rossington and Murphy both had the odd scrape early on but grew in confidence and looked to give it some welly ... the too usual annoying last wicket stand, felt TC should have been brought back into the attack straightaway once Dunn took wickets 8 and 9 in the same over.

About 15 minutes after the end of the match, the team and quite a few others from the squad came on the pitch to be presented with the Div Two trophy surrounded by spectators. Pleased that Zaf was there - no sign of any bandaging on his hand.

Well, not exactly the day we wanted but certainly the season.

Excellent report, Guildford.  Many thanks.  Sad that the season has ended, but Tom Curran in particular has really earned the right to have a good rest and a bit of a break.