SURREY VS HAMPSHIRE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

SURREY HAVE NAMED A THIRTEEN MAN SQUAD FOR THEIR SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AGAINST HAMPSHIRE AT THE AGEAS BOWL STARTING ON SUNDAY.
Tom Curran is unavailable for selection as he has now joined up with the England Lions squad for their One Day Series against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka A. Mathew Pillans returns to the squad but James Burke is unavailable after having an injection in his ankle earlier in the week.
Gary Wilson is still with the Ireland squad for their One Day Series against Afghanistan.
There is no place in the squad for Jade Dernbach or Matthew Dunn again.
The surrey squad to play Hampshire in the Specsavers County Championship at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday 17th July, Monday 18th July, Tuesday 19th July and Wednesday 20th July:
Gareth Batty (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Steven Davies
Aaron Finch
Ben Foakes
Mark Footitt
Arun Harinath
Stuart Meaker
Mathew Pillans
Jason Roy
Dominic Sibley
Harinath and Pillans for me to miss out though Burns will need to get some runs in this game.
jimbo can update us with the hampshire squad
Over to you chaps

Olly, we've had Edwards,Wood and Topley out all season. Berg missed the first couple of months. Carberry on and off. Most counties have their fair share...

Tea. Still 7 down. Only 2 wickets in the session - have to give that one to Hants. Solid resistance together with valuable runs from McManus and Andrew.

As I feared, we are really having to battle for victory - and I don't put that all down to Ansari's absence. I really want Hants in for their second dig and 1 down by stumps.

Sam gets Andrew soon after tea. We've started every session with a quick wicket.

Crazy Legs Crane now at the crease. He'll get the freedom of the county if he can bat as long as he bowled!

A 3rd bowling point as Crazy Legs loses his footing to Batty. 331/9 now - don't let 'em get a 4th batting point.

375-9 now - 4 overs to get 25 for a 5th bp. What's the betting they avoid the follow on!!

Desperately need to get this 10th wicket. Excellent effort by McManus with sensible stickability from Wheal.

Game has gone Guildford the injury to Ansari saw to that

Hello division two

Once again Surrey fail to dispose of the tail.  Tbf, there was that look in Foakes' eye after yesterday's play, when describing the pitch, which said "draw".  Also, remarkably well though Sibley did to take two quick wickets early today, if you are having to get him bowl 20+ overs in an innings then you probably haven't got a very good bowling attack.  We did a least get three bowling points.

The last 3 overs being bowled by Finch and Burns did suggest the towel was being thrown in. I didn't like that. I would have asked two of Meaker, Footitt and Curran to give it a final blast. Great credit to Wheal for seeing out the day but a number 11 with a batting average below 3 shouldn't be able to hold out to decent pace and seam bowling.

I don't agree with Olly that the game has gone - not yet, anyway. However, with every over that gets bowled the draw looks more and more likely. I did suggest before play started today that the win wasn't going to be a piece of cake and gave my reasons. Ansari being crocked was clearly a further handicap although we'll never know what impact he would have had. Stand in bowler Sibley ended up with as many wickets as main spinner Batty - would Ansari have done better? Maybe, maybe not - impossible to say with certainty.

Btw, Church annoyed me earlier going on that we needed to take 18 wickets in 6 sessions. We never had as long as that. If Hants bat into the final session tomorrow, they'll overtake our score. We therefore need to get them all out second time soon after tea or before to win. Very difficult but I did say it wasn't going to be easy.

Ok, that last wicket stand was frustrating but...

1/who wouldn't have settled for this position with one day to play when we were 415-7?
2/ if we'd knocked over the last wicket say 40 minutes before stumps, and asked them to follow on, with our knackered bowlers - without Zaf to hold an end - chances are Hants' openers would have got them up to around 398 anyway and had a little useful morale boosting mini-session tonight.

As things stand, we should be looking to take the last wicket early tomorrow with fresh bowlers, then have another go at them with all the bowlers still fresh. It's not ideal and it's frustrating but in many ways, I'd rather they were 398-9 tonight than 338 all out and 60-0 in their second innings. It still looks like a draw but you never know.

Meaker and Footit should open up tomorrow—can't see many tailenders surviving against them pumped up and bowling quick.

Agree with Guildford and Simon that this is far from a nailed on draw (though also far from a nailed on win). Should be a really interesting day's play tomorrow.

McManus had 5 championship runs this season before today.

jimbohammers wrote:Olly, we've had Edwards,Wood and Topley out all season. Berg missed the first couple of months. Carberry on and off. Most counties have their fair share...

So have Surrey - Ansari for me, however is the straw that breaks the camels back for us, especially in this game. He bowled us to our only win of the first class season so far, and if we were to do so here he would have had to perform similarly.

We need Batty to have a barnstormer tomorrow if we are to win this imo. Agree with James, go hard with Meaker/Footitt early to pickup the last wicket, if we do so get them in, go hard for 10 overs with seam then get Batty on to hopefully do damage bowling over 25+ overs in the innings (ably supported by a few from Sibley too).

McManus missed at slip by Finch off Curran in the first over. Slipping through our fingers in every sense as we now go into the 5th over of the day.

Fittingly, the last wicket partnership, lasting 37.1 overs, is brought to an end by a run out!

Looking on the bright side we are doing better than Notts - who like Surrey started their first innings with a huge first wicket partnership (in their case of 196). They are currently only 38 runs ahead of Somerset with 6 wickets remaining - and so could end up losing.

Great effort by McManus and Wheal (both with career best scores! ) which should go a long way to saving the game for Hants.

Almost 10 overs bowled this morning before that wicket which effectively used up 12 in the day. Very valuable work. Just a maximum of 84 for Hants to bat through second dig (I'm assuming we've enforced the follow on). However, if they go at a reasonable lick they'll overtake our score after, say, 60 or 70 overs. Be fun if we end up needing something like 70 off 6!!

jimbohammers wrote:Olly, we've had Edwards,Wood and Topley out all season. Berg missed the first couple of months. Carberry on and off. Most counties have their fair share...

Carberry's cancer was horrible news. Hope he recovers.

LondonTiger

Yep, a great effort from McManus and Wheal. Nearly 40 overs they saw off.

Meaker gets the first wicket. 9 to go now.

James100 wrote:Meaker gets the first wicket. 9 to go now.

And Batty gets the second. Tommy Alsop, another of Jimbo's young favourites. Still very much uphill from here but we're currently making a go of it.

Two quick wickets before tea keep Surrey's hopes alive - Hampshire 107 runs behind, Surrey need 6 wickets

As Hants have batted so cautiously today, it looks like we might get all of the 36.2 overs remaining to try for victory by an innings.

Afternoon all

Where you been, JimBob? Missed you.

5 to get. 31 overs left unless they up the run rate.

working hard Guildford

4 more needed

Surrey teasing us again

Now we can safely say that had Ansari bowled we would have won

jimbobgooner wrote: working hard Guildford

Glad to hear it, JimBob. Thought maybe you were helping Mr Wenger with his job application to the English FA.

4 to get. 29 overs left. We should be favourites but ....

jimbobgooner wrote:Now we can safely say that had Ansari bowled we would have won

Poor Zaf

4 wickets to get in 25 overs. An outside chance of victory. Realistically - given Surrey's only spasmodic ability to winkle out the tail - draw still odds on.

Handshakes all round not even the full batting points

No handshakes yet, JimBob.

It looks like they will overtake our score. That should go a long way to killing off any remaining hopes of a win.

Wicket!! 9.4 overs to get the last 3 but they're only 16 behind.

And another!

This is gonna be another Somerset "what if" game

2 to go ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Will not declaring at tea cost us?

The bar will be open this evening to drown sorrows and discuss "what ifs"! 

I expect Berg to try and hit quick runs for the lead ....

Meaker strikes 1 more wkt

Berg falls to Meaker!

And now Meaks gets the Ice Man! he's got 3, Batty's got 6.

Just need 1 more. Crazy Legs Crane or Brad Wheal who have both already taken so much time out of the game ....

This is too much

jimbobgooner wrote:Will not declaring at tea cost us?

 If we don't win this one I really think the key factor (apart from loss of Ansari obviously) will be that it took 75 overs to take the last four Hants wickets in the first innings.

8 overs left