County Championship Division 1 - Yorkshire v Surrey

Venue: Headingley, Leeds
Date: Sunday 8th - Wednesday 11th May

Umpires

Steve Garratt
Alex Wharf


Form

Yorkshire - P3, D3

Reigning champions are a side bang out of form atm. To win early season matches you need runs from the top order and wickets from the seamers. Yorkshire have managed neither. As with last season first innings scores are being rescued by the middle and lower order. Lees hit form at Trent Bridge, but the main run scorers otherwise have been Bairstow (5), Rashid (7), Plunkett (8) 7 Patterson (10). UInliek last season the opening bowlers are not coming to the rescue - highlighted by the spinners taking more wickets than the opening bowlers.


Surrey - P3, D2, L1

Reigning Second div champs, Surrey have, a wobble in the first innings of the season apart, been providing runs. Their issue has been the bowlers (Rampaul apart) aping the Yorkies and struggling for form.


Squads

Yorkshire:
Bairstow (Wicketkeeper), Ballance, Brooks, Gale (Captain), Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Plunkett, Rashid, Rhodes, Root, Willey, Wainman

Surrey:
Gareth Batty (capt), James Burke, Rory Burns, Tom Curran, Steven Davies, Matthew Dunn, Ben Foakes, Arun Harinath, Mathew Pillans, Ravi Rampaul, Jason Roy, Kumar Sangakkara, Gary Wilson

Potential Milestones:

AU Rashid needs 80 runs to reach 6000 runs in First-class matches.
JA Brooks needs 1 wickets to reach 100 wickets in First-class matches at Leeds.
SA Patterson needs 9 wickets to reach 300 wickets in First-class matches.

GJ Batty needs 11 wickets to reach 600 wickets in First-class matches.
R Rampaul need 4 wickets to reach 200 wickets in First-class matches.

Burke in for Ansari for Surrey

You haven't stuck the caps lock on and put Surrey as the home team!

I predict a backlash....

Come on Yorkshire.

For the love of everything, sort out the top order!

Ho hum, 2 threads - could be confusing. Anyway, I'll follow Tiger's gracious request [edit - which oddly has now disappeared from the other thread ] to ignore his thread and so will post here.

MODS / ADMIN - COULD YOU PLEASE MERGE THESE THREADS, THANKS (GENUINE REQUEST ALTHOUGH AN EXTRA EXCUSE TO USE MORE CAPS. )

Agree with JimBob on the likely Surrey XI. Leading wicket taker Rampaul to return for Dunn or Pillans (I reckon it'll be Dunn on drinks duties) with Burke replacing the crocked Ansari. Stewart was annoyed the batsmen didn't fully kick on against Durham - '' should have had two centuries and got over 500'' - but that doesn't seem a reason to drop someone and give Wilson a go even though he continues to score runs in the seconds (mind you, so did Sibley this week).

Whilst we are obviously going to need a win before long, I would still settle for a draw in this one. Yorks haven't exactly been on fire in their matches so far but they're an experienced bunch with proven talent. Of their squad, perhaps Rhodes and Wainman (don't know him) to miss out - very much a guess though, far more for Tiger to advise.

ANOTHER THREAD

Quite interested in this game as there's a lot of current and potential England players for Yorkshire in particular

Can't say I get too excited by County Cricket if I can't view it with an international cricket angle to it

Purely on a supporting home-grown talent level, I'd pick Dunn to play over Pillans, with Wilson being the other one to miss out. As Guildford says, I'd be happy with a draw away to Yorkshire (though it would be relaxing to get that first win under the belt as soon as possible).

guildfordbat wrote:Ho hum, 2 threads - could be confusing. Anyway, I'll follow Tiger's gracious request [edit - which oddly has now disappeared from the other thread   ] to ignore his thread and so will post here.

You will have to ask the gooner why he decided to post a second thread, again. I deleted my petulant reaction to yet again having someone come along and write a duplicate thread. I apologise for that petulance - and now leave this thread for your discussion and delectation.

Guys - leaving for Edgbaston now. That's with family, not at cricket. Will try to post again at end of day. Probably best not to bait the Tiger!

Surrey win the toss and elect to bat - under strong sun an obvious decision even if modern Headingley usually gets easier to bat on.

Yorkshire seamers have to bowl better than they have all season, or they will be out of the game by the end of the day.

Teams:

AZ Lees, A Lyth, GS Ballance, JE Root, JM Bairstow†, AW Gale*, AU Rashid, LE Plunkett, DJ Willey, SA Patterson, JA Brooks

RJ Burns, A Harinath, KC Sangakkara, SM Davies, JJ Roy, JE Burke, BT Foakes†, TK Curran, GJ Batty*, R Rampaul, MP Dunn

Teams as expected, Crucial first session today

Interesting first 6 overs. Playing and missing, good leaves, huge appeals for LBW and caught behind and a dropped one in the slips.

Surrey openers still there and doing their job in seeing off the new ball.

Burns perhaps lets the adrenaline get to him after taking 11 runs of a Brooks over by pushing with hard hands at a Willey nibbler.

Harinath dropped again for a 3rd time - bet he gets a big ton 4th time lucky

Tough chances or Yorkshire just fielding very badly?

45 for 2 painful stuff

50 up

guildfordbat wrote:Guys - leaving for Edgbaston now. That's with family, not at cricket. Will try to post again at end of day. Probably best not to bait the Tiger!

James100 wrote:Tough chances or Yorkshire just fielding very badly?

all should have been taken - though in the end not expensive.

Sanga looking real class.

Just about Surrey's session.

LondonTiger wrote:Just about Surrey's session.

Yeah, only 2 down for 100 against the best bowling attack in the country with the new ball is pretty good. The reliance on Sanga this season is a little worrying though. Hopefully Davies can make a big one.

What's the bowling been like?

Bowling has been about the best it has been all season, by all accounts, though that will not be saying much. A little short on pace though and with little in the wicket could be a long afternoon as it is getting hot.

Davies seemed unable to pick Dilly, so was playing from deep in his crease and watching the ball of the surface, Sanga pure class. I have to leave at tea to get home at any decent sort of time, doubt I will see another wicket.

96 - 2  In the end a fairly even session, which comes as some relief after Surrey fell to 38 - 2.  Yorks' bowling attack looks considerably stronger than Surrey's, so it will be even more important than usual that several batsmen kick on and get big scores.

Fifty for Sangakkara

Fifty for Steve Davies - Yorkshire will be hoping to pickup one of these two pretty sharpish, Surrey need them to go big

Excellent fight, two quick wickets, and Surrey are on the defensive.

Hundred for Steve Davies, Surrey 230-4

Surrey 330 all out. The openers knocked 15 off of that before stumps.

Excellent day for Yorkshire. Unlikely to be a result if the adverse weather forecasts for Tuesday/Wednesday are correct, but the home side's best chance is to bat-once-bat-long.

And that means the top order need to contribute!

Yes an excellent fight back from Yorkshire, puts them ahead after Day One. I'd say about 65-35 ahead, if quantifying it out of 100!

Surrey will be unhappy they didn't make 400, but 330 against an attack of Willey, Brooks, Patterson, Plunkett and Rashid isn't a bad effort

Very good hundred for Davies, starting to put some runs behind his stated ambitio. to get in the England Test side

Whilst I can't see that happening, he needs to score a mountain of runs to at least get in the selectors discussions

Well I missed a strong session for us. Always hard to say how good a total is until both sides have batted though.

I wasn't able to listen to any commentary but it seems a disappointing end to day one. From 30 odd for two, it could have been a lot worse. However, from 260 odd for 4 it should have been a lot better.

So far in Division One, we're not being outclassed but we're not capitalising on decent positions. We can't assume we'll be in such a position more than once in each game. Sermon over.

Btw, not entirely sure what Tiger is up to but don't like it. He keeps saying use this thread and then posts on the other one he set up. That just adds to confusion and hinders dialogue and banter amongst posters. Admittedly, his thread was set up first but I have my own suspicions as to why he did that. JimBob has been posting match threads on this forum for every Surrey game since before Tiger was watching cricket with his granddad outside Rumbelows. Long may JimBob continue doing that!
Anyway, I've again asked the mods/admin to combine the threads.

James100 wrote:Purely on a supporting home-grown talent level, I'd pick Dunn to play over Pillans, with Wilson being the other one to miss out. As Guildford says, I'd be happy with a draw away to Yorkshire (though it would be relaxing to get that first win under the belt as soon as possible).

Hi James - I don't disagree with that at all. I just thought Stewie, MDV and Norah might not have seen it that way. As it happened, they took a different view from what I suspected. However, I'm pretty sure it was a close call. Dunn has been named on the Surrey website today as playing for the seconds in their match starting tomorrow - whilst that is obviously wrong, it perhaps suggests a late change of mind!

In the end a rather disappointing, but not disastrous, total for Surrey.

It will be rather cooler tomorrow, so that may help at the margins if Surrey cop some serious hitting.

Tiger is obviously right in saying that both teams need to have had a bat before judging the first total put on the board. However, I can't help but feel we fell short. Particularly given yesterday's weather and where we were just after tea (260 plus) with only 4 down.

Some reports seem kinder to Surrey than me (eg, opening highlights from ECB on Surrey website and, to some extent, cricinfo). However, I wonder if they were being written at the start of the third session rather than the end of it?!

Anyway, add to that a strong top order of Yorkies with several postmen to follow and, yes, I'm worried already we haven't got enough. I reckon we are certainly going to need a couple of wickets by lunch and can't afford many gimmes. Dunn and Burke are going to need their radar fine tuned from the off today.

Well, that's 2 already in the first half hour! Lyth and Ballance both gone to Ravioli! Think he's only 1 behind 'Ronnie' Barker now as the Division's leading wicket taker.

Important that the third and fourth bowlers this morning do a decent job. Both Dunn and Burke can be expensive.

Yorkshire having a wobble at 45-3

Ravi Rampaul must have enjoyed his breakfast

Curran to the party now as he gets Lees caught behind. Guess Jetty will like that if he's looking in!

So 3 down already, much better than could have been expected but still a lot of work for Surrey to do if they're to get a first innings lead.

Root and Bairstow at the crease now. Quite apart from their obvious class, they'll both score quickly if they get in. Could take the game away from Surrey if they get going.

Standard top order fluff from Yorkshire, just like England in 2013/2014!

Ravi Rampaul is bringing a whole new meaning to the term "buffet bowler"!

Definitely has a bit of a golden arm at the moment

Partnership of 74 between Root/Bairstow in just 9 overs. Good to see them finding their touch before the Sri Lanka tests.

guildfordbat wrote:Well, that's 2 already in the first half hour! Lyth and Ballance both gone to Ravioli! Think he's only 1 behind 'Ronnie' Barker now as the Division's leading wicket taker.

Important that the third and fourth bowlers this morning do a decent job. Both Dunn and Burke can be expensive.

Oh dear!! Worse than I feared. Burke 0/21 off his 2 overs including 4 boundaries. Dunn 0/14 off his first over with 3 boundaries, that was after Tom Curran bowled 8 on the reel this morning. Wouldn't be surprised to see Baron Harinath bowling some time today.

Getting worse for the Surrey support bowlers! Dunn taken off after his solitary over and Rampaul back on. Burke continues but goes for 14 in his next over with 3 boundaries - that's figures of 0/35 from his 3.

Batty's still not had a bowl. I understand him holding himself back when the seamers are doing well, but Surrey are in desperate need of someone to come on and tighten things up atm

Hell's teeth!

173/3 at lunch. I'm sure Surrey would have settled for 3 wickets in the opening session but not conceding almost 160 runs. The Burke & Dunn combo going for 62 off 7 overs. 26 boundaries in the 29 overs of Yorks' innings. Not good, not good at all. Rampaul will want his lunch even more than usual having bowled 11 overs this morning.

Still no bowling by Batty - I'll hand that to Olly for his comments (if he hasn't already)!

James100 wrote:Batty's still not had a bowl. I understand him holding himself back when the seamers are doing well, but Surrey are in desperate need of someone to come on and tighten things up atm

Exactly! Also, for Rampaul to bowl much more - the 12th man will need to be running on regularly with a supply of doughnuts!