SURREY VS KENT T20 VITALITY BLAST

HASHIM AMLA & REECE TOPLEY HAVE BEEN ADDED TO SURREY’S 14-MAN SQUAD THAT WILL TAKE ON KENT SPITFIRES AT CANTERBURY ON TUESDAY.
Batsman Amla is available for the first time this summer after travel restrictions prevented his journey from South Africa earlier in the year.
Left arm seamer Topley could make his Surrey debut having been released from England’s T20 squad.
England U19s seamer Blake Cullen has been called back to Middlesex due to their injury concerns.
Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jason Roy are all preparing for England’s upcoming fixtures. Roy will miss the IT20 series with Pakistan but will remain with the national squad ahead of the white-ball series with Australia.
Skipper Jade Dernbach is out with a groin injury. All-rounders Jordan Clark (foot and ankle), Rikki Clarke (hip) and Ryan Patel (knee) are all out.
Nick Kimber (knee) and Liam Plunkett (hamstring) are also out of contention for this match.
Morne Morkel is out for the remainder of the season after sustaining an ankle injury in pre-match fielding practice before the start of the Bob Willis Trophy fixture with Kent.
There is no place in the Squad for Amar Virdi
FULL SQUAD:
Gareth Batty (c)
Hashim Amla
Gus Atkinson
Scott Borthwick
Rory Burns
Matt Dunn
Laurie Evans
Ben Foakes
Will Jacks
Daniel Moriarty
Jamie Smith
Mark Stoneman
James Taylor
Reece Topley
Maybe Burns, Stoneman and Taylor to miss out
Over to you chaps

Cheers, JimBob.

I had written Amla off for this season. Didn't realise he was back.

Hope no one got any commission from the Cullen loan deal - what a waste of space that was!

I think that'll be it for Morkel with Surrey. A shame for it to end like that. We would never have won the title in 2018 without him. His 3 year deal is up this season and I hear he's likely to settle with his Australian wife in Oz. At least JOve should compensate - how much, we'll have to see.

Reckon you could be on the money about the 3 to miss out. That again gives us a very long tail which I don't like but it's probably preferable to sacrificing a proper bowler.

Kent win toss and bowl.

JimBob close to a cigar with the Surrey players to miss out. Taylor and Stoneman benched as thought but joined by Smith, not Burns. Guess we wanted his greater experience in the line up - might help but not if he scores his usual 3 off 6 and then gets out!

Awful start by Surrey 36/3 off 6 at the end of power play.

Particularly poor shots by Jacks and Evans. Foakes also in the hutch. Burns currently scratching around. Amla looking pretty fine but a bit rusty.

guildfordbat wrote:Kent win toss and bowl.

JimBob close to a cigar with the Surrey players to miss out. Taylor and Stoneman benched as thought but joined by Smith, not Burns. Guess we wanted his greater experience in the line up - might help but not if he scores his usual 3 off 6 and then gets out!

The club have tweeted that Smith was unwell Guildford

Afternoon, JimBob. Thanks for that about Smith. You can have a cigar!

70/3 off 10. Amla and Burns rebuilding but lacking oomph. Kent will be happy enough atm.

doubt we will get to 140 with what's left

100/3 off 14.
I’m not happy. Amla and Burns are both playing the same “holding it together” role. One of them at least needs to properly go for it and should have done from a few overs earlier.

Things must be bad if Guildford turns into Gooch

JimBob - do you know where Churchy is?

Amla at least starting to put his foot on the gas with 59 off 44. Burns’ exact run a ball 39 is not going to win many t20 games.

guildfordbat wrote:JimBob - do you know where Churchy is?

no idea tbh he is tweeting about the game

50 for Amla

50 for Burns

160/4 off our 20.
Feel we’ve left at least 20 runs out there. Not enough oomph by Burns or Amla. Also, Amal’s legs didn’t convert enough singles into twos.
Going to have to bowl and field incredibly well to get anything out of this one.

Cheers jimbob
A decent recovery to set 8 an over, need our medium pacers to give the slow bowlers something to defend after the powerplay

On that small ground 160 is well short

thegooch7 wrote:Cheers jimbob
A decent recovery to set 8 an over, need our medium pacers to give the slow bowlers something to defend after the powerplay

You're in a good mood, Goochie. Only hope it lasts!

guildfordbat wrote:Cheers, JimBob.

I had written Amla off for this season. Didn't realise he was back.

Hope no one got any commission from the Cullen loan deal - what a waste of space that was!

I think that'll be it for Morkel with Surrey. A shame for it to end like that. We would never have won the title in 2018 without him. His 3 year deal is up this season and I hear he's likely to settle with his Australian wife in Oz. At least JOve should compensate - how much, we'll have to see.

Reckon you could be on the money about the 3 to miss out. That again gives us a very long tail which I don't like but it's probably preferable to sacrificing a proper bowler.

Echo your sentiments around Morkel, Guildford. Popped up on my memories the other day, that I had the pleasure of attending the Lancs game at The Oval in 2018, and one of the best days of cricket I have seen that final day, with Morkel taking 6 wickets in a crucial victory during the county championship campaign. He was incredible that season, such a shame he couldn't have gone out on a better note (fair play to him for leaving his family behind in Aus and coming over during this shortened season too)

guildfordbat wrote:

thegooch7 wrote:Cheers jimbob
A decent recovery to set 8 an over, need our medium pacers to give the slow bowlers something to defend after the powerplay

You're in a good mood, Goochie. Only hope it lasts!

Not now Guildford, why would Batty bowl Atkinson again after his atrocious first over, +11 in the powerplay, par for the course with these clowns! Thought it must be a postage stamp size if Burns has hit a six!

Borthwick on. Fear the worst here!

Time for jacks to start delivering he talks a good game

Easy win for Kent

As feared, the 3 clowns in the powerplay lost us the game, to be fair, they were equally as garbage outside it.... Well done Reece, great debut, in the mould of those superb signings Clark and Plunkett

and relax Gooch is back

guildfordbat wrote:Borthwick on. Fear the worst here!

3 long hops resulting in 2 boundaries and a wicket!

Bottom line is we were second best all round. Didn't score enough and didn't bowl well enough although Moriarty again did himself no harm.

Ah well, our unbeaten run had to end eventually.

guildfordbat wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Borthwick on. Fear the worst here!

3 long hops resulting in 2 boundaries and a wicket!

Bottom line is we were second best all round. Didn't score enough and didn't bowl well enough although Moriarty again did himself no harm.

Ah well, our unbeaten run had to end eventually.

Have seen a few clips of Moriaty , he reminds me a lot of our former man, Danny Briggs. Tall left handed, doesn't spin it a lot but difficult to get after.

guildfordbat wrote:160/4 off our 20.
Feel we’ve left at least 20 runs out there. Not enough oomph by Burns or Amla. Also, Amal’s legs didn’t convert enough singles into twos.
Going to have to bowl and field incredibly well to get anything out of this one.  

Someone I know has an Amla rule (now the Tom Abell rule!), where if Hash scores runs in a T20 then he'll always back the opposition chasing as he thinks that if Amla can score runs quickly-ish it must be a road and the opposition can chase anything. Looks to be very prescient today!

Moriarty is an interesting one - he played some cricket up here in Norfolk a season or two ago, and there was much hilarity in our clubs whatsapp group when they saw he signed for Surrey...and a few more shocked at how well he's been going this season!

JDizzle wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:160/4 off our 20.
Feel we’ve left at least 20 runs out there. Not enough oomph by Burns or Amla. Also, Amal’s legs didn’t convert enough singles into twos.
Going to have to bowl and field incredibly well to get anything out of this one.  

Someone I know has an Amla rule (now the Tom Abell rule!), where if Hash scores runs in a T20 then he'll always back the opposition chasing as he thinks that if Amla can score runs quickly-ish it must be a road and the opposition can chase anything. Looks to be very prescient today!

Hi JD - Unfortunately there might be some truth in that.

A connected point I would emphasise. Whilst Burns was a good partner to steady the ship with Amla after we lost 3 early wickets, he most definitely wasn't once we had got to the 10 or 12 over stage without further loss. We continued to pootle along around or just above 1 per over for too long. At least one of them really had to go for it sooner but neither did.

I can just about accept us ending up with a clearly below par score in a t20 game when wickets have regularly fallen but find it harder to accept when we are only 4 wickets down at the end of our dig.

Yes, Burns is definitely in the Amla/Abell category of player in T20s.

The standard of the Blast this year has been noticeably poorer in my eyes than normal. Sans overseas players and a load in England squads is to be expected, but it's not been a great advert so far unfortunately.