SURREY VS HAMPSHIRE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

SURREY HAVE NAMED AN UNCHANGED FOURTEEN MAN SQUAD FOR THE SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AGAINST HAMPSHIRE AT THE KIA OVAL STARTING ON TUESDAY.
Jason Roy will miss the game after he was named in the England squad for their T20 International against Pakistan and Zafar Ansari is unavailable for selection due to a back injury.
The Surrey squad to play Hampshire in the Specsavers County Championship at the Kia Oval on Tuesday 6thSeptember, Wednesday 7th September. Thursday 8th September and Friday 9th September:
Gareth Batty (capt)
Rory Burns
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Steven Davies
Ben Foakes
Mark Footitt
Arun Harinath
Stuart Meaker
Ravi Rampaul
Kumar Sangakkara
Dominic Sibley
Amar Virdi
Gary Wilson
Rampaul, Virdi and Wilson to miss out you would think
over to you chaps

Wilson and Rampaul definites to miss out, Virdi could stand a chance on a spinner's wicket but I'd expect an unchanged side. Seems like ages since we last played a Championship match!

Thanks for the the thread, JimBob. Good to be posting again for a 4 day game. Hope you guys have recovered from your inevitable hangovers when we smashed Warks and Lancs when I was on holiday. I should go away more often!

Like you and James, an unchanged team seems the most likely option. You never know though if someone's got a niggle and/or there's a desire to rest one of the bowlers.

Hard to see how Virdi can be squeezed into the eleven but probably not impossible. My thanks to Olly for his post on the general thread about the recent members' forum; I note Alec Stewart said that Virdi came ''very close'' to being selected for the Lancs game. I would take Stewie at his word there. He said the same to me about Matt Dunn after he was 12th man for our season's opener back in 2014 - Dunn was then picked for the next CC match.

Going tomorrow.

Evening guys, from a Hampshire point of view its a must win game for us. Think (hope) we will go Smith, Adams, Alsop, Vince, Dawson, Ervine, McLaren, McManus, Berg, Crane, Wheal - although looks a little light on Bowling so maybe Carter will come in somewhere.

Enjoy tomorrow Guildford.

Evening all. I would expect Surrey to be unchanged. Tho I suppose one day we may reach that sometime / never mythical date when Tom Curran is rested!

No toss surrey are batting

Team as expected

34-1 after 15. Slow start and Sibley gone (not had a very good season).

Guildford, would like to hear your thoughts on our young wicketkeeper McManus, getting very good reviews about his keeping

93 - 2 at lunch with Burns on 37* and Harinath on 9*.  Sounds like a fairly even session. To lose 2 wickets having been put in is not a disaster, but on the other hand one of the wickets is that of Sanga. 

Rather gloomy, humid morning in W Kent so I imagine there was a fair amount of swing on offer.

Interesting that Hants have gone with Andrew instead of Crane in their bowling line up.  Recall that in the last cc match between the two sides Batty criticised Hants for over bowling Crane - hopefully he'll be putting his feet up now!

County cap for Ben Foakes

jimbobgooner wrote:County cap for Ben Foakes

Thanks, Jimbob.  That's certainly well deserved.  Surrey tend not to be in a rush when it comes to dishing out caps.

Corp, i would have liked to see Crane playing today, he can at times be expensive but is a wicket taker, which is what we need in a must win game.

Id say that's Surreys morning. Glad Sanga is out though

#BurnsforEngland starts right now folks

152 - 4. Hants gradually working their way through the batting order.  Burns still there, now on 58* and joined by Foakes on 4*.  Pity there's been no substantial partnership so far....

I imagine Hants' plan was to pack their attack with seamers knowing they could cboose to bowl first and with a 1030 start; then hope that they did sufficiently well on the first innings that scoreboard pressure would mount on Surrey. That could yet work with the Surrey first innings in the balance.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:#BurnsforEngland starts right now folks

Very much in the Boycott tradition!

kingdaveeagle wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:#BurnsforEngland starts right now folks

Very much in the Boycott tradition!

Ahem - I would say more in the John Edrich tradition - a gritty lefthanded batsman with a not overly attractive batting style who consistently accumulated quite a lot of runs at his own pace.

204 - 4. First batting point, plus first 50+ partnership.

A second break for bad light - but on resumption Burns attacks Wheal to bring up his century.    218 - 4.

Foakes on 28, hoping no doubt to impress selectors as well as get a big score for Surrey. 

220 -5 with Burns out for 101.    Surrey innings still in the balance.  Hope we can at least reach 300.

252 - 5 and a second batting point.   Foakes on 44* and Sam Curran 15*

Sam Curran out for 17 after modestly useful partnership of 35.

258 - 6 - not exactly a commanding total at the moment, but hopefully Foakes will steer Surrey past 300.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Sam Curran out for 17 after modestly useful partnership of 35.

258 - 6 - not exactly a commanding total at the moment, but hopefully Foakes will steer Surrey past 300.

A bit churlish there corp, if I may say so. Having been put in against a side packed with seamers on a humid morning, I would have taken 260-6 at stumps with one of our top line batsmen going well on 47* overnight. It would have no surprise to see us rolled over for 170 odd on such a day. Nothing to say we won't be bowled out first thing tomorrow for 280, mind, but I reckon Hants would have been hoping to reply to less then they already will have to in their first dig.

Craig White (Hampshire coach) wasn't happy with the way we bowled. Failed to build up any pressure and when we did a loose ball followed and let Surrey off the hook. He says with the new ball tomorrow we've got to try and take the last 4 wickets very quickly and restrict Surrey to about 280.

So definitely Surreys day. Well played Burns

Agree with Guildford and Jimbo's comments - Surrey's day for me

Is the forecast set fair for the next three days?

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Agree with Guildford and Jimbo's comments - Surrey's day for me

Is the forecast set fair for the next three days?

Am I that predictable? I haven't commented yet!

It is likely to be dry for the rest of this match.

Surrey a bit unfortunate with the cloudy humid conditions - according to Burns the ball was swinging a lot. So Surrey will have had to bat through two 1030 starts - as well as dealing with stop start play today due to bad light before play finally abandoned.  It's due to be much sunnier tomorrow (again after a murky start).  But we have been very lucky with the toss most of this season so we can't really complain if we get the rough end of conditions in this match.

So I would stick with my view that we are not in a commanding position - and especially if as expected conditions ease tomorrow after the first hour.  I wouldn't blame Surrey for that.  If we end with anywhere near parity after both first innings I think we will have done very well.

jimbohammers wrote:Craig White (Hampshire coach) wasn't happy with the way we bowled. Failed to build up any pressure and when we did a loose ball followed and let Surrey off the hook. He says with the new ball tomorrow we've got to try and take the last 4 wickets very quickly and restrict Surrey to about 280.

So definitely Surreys day. Well played Burns

Hi Jimbo and all - I'm not sure that White helped Hants by picking such a samey attack. Five right arm seamers was one too many for me. Felt you would have benefitted from the variety and wicket taking potential provided by leg spinner Crane. Admittedly, I was looking forward to seeing Crane and was disappointed to learn he wasn't playing!

For the first hour or so, it helped that your four main bowlers could keep going at us and make batting very challenging in the difficult conditions. However, Hants were a tad fortunate that both Sanga and Davies (another typically sloppy dismissal to infuriate home supporters) got out almost as soon as they were going well and looking to really advance Surrey's position - if that hadn't happened, we would definitely have been well on top. As it was, Burns produced an excellent innings full of grit and determination and, after some time, became more aggressive as he got used to the regularity of the attack. As I've said for some time, Burns does a good job at the top of the order. Whilst Burns doesn't often fail us, he probably though lets himself down as regards any international ambitions by not fully pushing on to make more hundreds including the odd big hundred.

I feel that Burns' ton and Foakes' unbeaten 40 odd have tipped the day in our favour. Not massively but sufficiently. My aim for tomorrow morning would be to get to 340 - that should be a very decent first innings score. [Edit. Even if- as the Corporal suggests - Hants have better weather for their first dig.]

Jimbo - you asked earlier about McManus behind the sticks. I was impressed. Excellent catch at full stretch from Sibley's leg glance off Berg. Much of the rest of the time, he was calm and unfussy. Just a shame I couldn't see him keeping to Crane!

PS The stoppages for bad light were maddening . The umpires may have been doing what the regulations require them to do but, if so, then the regulations need changing. There was a total lack of common sense being applied. There was no danger to anyone and no disadvantage being suffered by either side. The main consequence was to annoy the spectators prepared to spend their money and time on County Championship cricket when that form of the game needs to be doing all it can to keep those same supporters.

Only complaint from me is baby face getting out to Dawson I think you know my reasons by now

Thanks for the report, Guildford

Agree that the attack is is too samey. Medium pacers all the way through + dawsons spin. Good to hear McManus impressed. He has taken some great catches + stumpings in recent weeks. Just needs to get some more runs.

McLaren bowls Foakes after he was dropped in the slips. 278-7 now

324 - 8 and some useful runs from the tail, especially Batty - who has of course got over 7,000 runs to his name and recently scored his first century for Surrey.  Third batting point is useful.

329 all out batty left stranded in the forties

Not there today and unable to follow play this morning. However, the scorecard suggests it was just about Hants' session. They captured the last 4 wickets for the addition of 69 runs and saw out 4 overs to get to lunch on 12/0.

However, since then Tom Curran has accounted for Adams and it's now 28/1 in the 17th over. TC into his 9th over on the reel.

At least another 2 wickets by tea please ....

Footitt 0/20 off 5 overs. He was 0/1 off his first 3 overs. Hmmm. Don't expect a sevenfer every time and still very early on in this game but am looking for more reliability from him.

Unlike many (including Spills - for once, we disagreed), I wasn't convinced by his signing at the time and my jury is still out.

Hants 105/1 with just a couple of overs before tea. Looks like this will be Hants' session as well.

Still some way off panic stations for Surrey but feel we can expect King Dave dialling in.

jimbohammers wrote:Thanks for the report, Guildford

Agree that the attack is is too samey. Medium pacers all the way through + dawsons spin. Good to hear McManus impressed. He has taken some great catches + stumpings in recent weeks. Just needs to get some more runs.

McLaren bowls Foakes after he was dropped in the slips. 278-7 now

Jimbo - I thought Brad Wheel would be faster than he seemed. Maybe that was because I heard him being called ''Wheels of Fire'' a little while back!

Meanwhile, a very useful unbeaten fifty for your boy Tommy Alsop.

guildfordbat wrote:Hants 105/1 with just a couple of overs before tea. Looks like this will be Hants' session as well.

Still some way off panic stations for Surrey but feel we can expect King Dave dialling in.

Not much to add to that really. Nice to see I have a reputation for my positive thoughts!!

Hi Guildford, I forgot about Wheal! He's certainly the quickest in our bowling line up. In the t20 game vs Sussex he was bowling 88/89mph.

Alsop doing well, he often gets these 40's/50's, his job now is to push on and get a big score.

Awful from the rey so far need to try and forget about the final

134 - 3 and a couple of wickets for Footitt (including Vince just now) have brought Surrey back into the match. Foakes has taken 3 catches.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:134 - 3 and a couple of wickets for Footitt (including Vince just now) have brought Surrey back into the match. Foakes has taken 3 catches.

Not with complete confidence but, in view of my earlier post about Footitt, I'm appealing for a successful jinx for his wickets!

Seems like the Corporal's concerns of yesterday were well merited. We're not out of this game by any means but are behind. A couple of early wickets in the morning would change that but if Alsop and Ervine can crack on until midday or later we're going to be in a heap of trouble.

Congratulations to Tommy Alsop on his maiden ton - and to Jimbo for flagging him for some time as one to watch. A little bit of luck on the way (apparently dropped at slip on 74 by my old mucker Davies) but all credit to Alsop for making the most of it.

Our only other CC match this season is away to Durham. In both the last two corresponding fixtures (2012 and 2013) we came back from the Riverside with just 2 points having suffered an innings defeat.

Repeating that after losing at home to Hants would certainly have me studying the table anxiously. Just saying ....

Thanks for the mention Guildford! Really pleased for Alsop, when i saw him last year i was very impressed, hope he can keep going now. A good fightback from us today, after losing Vince cheaply i feared the worst. Still a big morning session tomorrow, lose a few wickets cheaply and the game is in the balance again.

Two wickets this morning for Footitt.  Probably helps that for the first time in the match Surrey have had a go at bowling in the early morning conditions. 232 -5.  Hants still in a good position but match very much in the balance.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Two wickets this morning for Footitt.  Probably helps that for the first time in the match Surrey have had a go at bowling in the early morning conditions. 232 -5.  Hants still in a good position but match very much in the balance.

Agreed.

Corporal - were you listening for the second wicket this morning? On an anorak aspect, just wondered who the sub was who took the catch and why he's on. Hopefully, he's not covering for someone with a meaningful injury.

272/5. McClaren racing.

Another wicket needed soon.

Oh dear. Hants 323/5 at lunch, just 6 behind.

I can now answer my earlier question - according to BBC text, Les Dawson was ''spectacularly caught at mid-wicket by Jade Dernbach'' when he was briefly on for Sanga.

Only one winner of this.