SURREY VS ESSEX EAGLES NATWEST T20 BLAST

SURREY HAVE NAMED A FOURTEEN MAN SQUAD FOR THEIR OPENING GAME IN THE NATWEST T20 BLAST AGAINST THE ESSEX EAGLES AT CHELMSFORD ON FRIDAY.
Sam Curran is available for selection as he is free from his school commitments for the game and Mathew Pillans is named in a Surrey T20 squad for the first time. Ravi Rampaul is unavailable due to the hamstring strain he sustained in the recent Championship game against Middlesex.
Zafar Ansari,Matthew Dunn and Jade Dernbach remain on the treatment table.
Aaron Finch,Chris Morris and Dwayne Bravo are still at the IPL
The Surrey Squad to play the Essex Eagles in the NatWest T20 Blast at the Essex County Ground on Friday 20th May:
Gareth Batty (capt)
James Burke
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Ben Foakes
Azhar Mahmood
Stuart Meaker
Mathew Pillans
Jason Roy
Kumar Sangakkara
Dominic Sibley
Gary Wilson
pillans,meaker and burns to miss out imo
over to you chaps

Cheers, JimBob.

I'm similar to you on the team although feel Pillans might just get the nod over Burke.

Reckon Sibley could have a bowl, maybe even opening as he's done for the seconds. Besides him, Batty is the only slow bowler in the squad. That's unusual for Surrey - over the years, we've gone heavily with slowies in t20s.

Agree with you guys. The team will be something like

Davies
Roy
Sangakkara
Wilson
Sibley
Azhar
Foakes
S Curran
Burke
T Curran
Batty

The batting order will be interesting. Pretty much all the positions from 4-10 could come in just about any order à la West Indies.

Just to flag this is being shown on Sky. Believe they're covering another game earlier.

Cheers Guildford

Essex win toss and bowl

Foakes, Sibley and Meaker miss out

Sibley, Foakes and Meaker miss out

Looking forward to seeing Pilans tonight

Very surprised by Foakes not being in the team.

Not happy that Sibley misses out

In many ways Zaf is our most important player - side looks unbalanced without him

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:In many ways Zaf is our most important player - side looks unbalanced without him

Yup. We've really seen that with Burke's struggles at no. 7 in the FC stuff

Steve Davies in 'getting out softly' shocker

Glorious powerful straight drive from Roy.

41/1 off 4. Good but don't get too excited - always short boundaries at Chelmsford and the rope is in tonight as well. We'll need our bowlers to be on the money.

Quinn gets Roy and Sanga in the 6th over - very bad news.

Burns and Wilson now in together. Both can dig in but I don't see either taking the game away from Essex.

Surrey this is poo

82/6 off 11. In heaps of trouble. Decent bowling and good catching by Essex but a lot of the problems of our own making.

The Sky guys keep banging on about 160 being par here. I'm not sure that takes account of how small this ground is and how more attacking batsmen are generally these days. In the other games going on tonight, 6 teams have batted their 20 overs so far with totals ranging from 178 to 242.

Currently 138/6 off 17, Azhar and TC doing well but they inherited a real mess.

10 wides delivered by Essex - a full over's worth of runs.

The difference between being strong favourites and slight favourites.

170 is about 10-20 under par I'd say, but we have a chance which didn't look likely at 70-5

Feel we need a lot of wickets to win this now. I can't see 170 being defended unless we get 'em all out or at least 8 down. If we don't get wickets, fear Essex will romp home.

Good bowling by Surrey so far to stay in this.

Olly gets his wish - here's Pillans ....

Westley dropped on 18, but Essex grinding to a halt.

Good first over for Pillans but the poor guy still can't get a wicket for Surrey (2 nil returns in the Champo) - drop by Roy which he would normally have gobbled.

Suspect they'll go after Pillans in his 2nd ....

The drop of Westley is looming large here...

Another drop, Essex on the charge.

They may have timed the charge to perfection.

Duty - Essex's charge has been highly effective but helped by Surrey's drops (Burke having a nightmare game). Anyway, we've just held one and got Tendo back in the hutch. Essex still favourites in my book needing 43 off 26 with 5 wickets left but we're not out of it yet ....

36 off 18 now. 4 wickets remaining.

Close game.

Need to get Napier ....

Well they had a golden chance.

Might have cost them as Napier crunches another six.

Brilliant penultimate over by TC. Only 2 runs conceded and 2 wickets (with 2 catches from Burke whose evening just got a bit better!).

15 off the last required and Azhar skittles Dixon off the first ball with a slower ball ....

Duty281 wrote:10 wides delivered by Essex - a full over's worth of runs.

The difference between being strong favourites and slight favourites.

And they were 9 runs short of victory.

Excellent recovery from Surrey.

Duty - take the point about the wides. I've been banging on this season about the wides and particularly the no balls Surrey have bowled in the Champo - more than any other Division One side. Good we got that part of our game right tonight.

Burke's bowling was poor but still felt a bit sorry for him. Essex targeted him from the start and once he started on a poor line, that was it. Still right that he was given a bowl - don't think Pillans would have got away with 4 overs, worth noting he went for 18 in his 3rd and last over after a fairly tidy start.

We rode our luck at times tonight and just about deservedly so. However, we'll need to tighten up a few areas - probably not surprising one game in.

always nice to beat the essex boys in their own backyard

Gentle reminder to those of the Surrey mafia that don't contribute to the main cricket section to head over get involved. If the cricket section isn't going to die off, we need a few more people on there I feel, which could attract more new members, some of which might be Surrey fans!