SURREY VS MIDDLESEX LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

SURREY HAVE NAMED A SQUAD OF 14 TO TAKE ON MIDDLESEX IN THIS WEEK’S LV= COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH AT THE KIA OVAL.
Reece Topley returns to the group after being rested for last week’s rain ruined match against Somerset, with Gus Atkinson making way. This is the final match of Kemar Roach’s spell with Surrey, as he returns to the Caribbean to prepare for upcoming West Indies commitments next week.
Sean Abbott, his overseas replacement for three LV= County Championship matches and the Vitality Blast group stage, has arrived in the country and is expected to be available for next week’s visit of Gloucestershire.
England Test men Rory Burns, Ben Foakes and Ollie Pope will join up with the international squad following the completion of this fixture.
Sam Curran, Tom Curran and Jason Roy have completed their quarantine period after returning from India but have not yet began training.
There is still no place in the squad for Ben Geddes  Connor McKerr, Ryan Patel, Liam Plunkett, Laurie Evans, Jade Dernbach or James Taylor.
This match will be shown live on Sky Sports if you can bear the sky commentary team.
FULL SQUAD:
Rory Burns (c)
Hashim Amla
Jordan Clark
Rikki Clarke
Ben Foakes
Will Jacks
Daniel Moriarty
Jamie Overton
Ollie Pope
Kemar Roach
Jamie Smith
Mark Stoneman
Reece Topley
Amar Virdi
Jacks and Moriarty will definitely miss out so the final spot will probably be decided by the weather again which could mean Overton is a very lucky man and Virdi carries the drinks again.
Over to you chaps  

Cheers, mate.

I think the weather may allow some play tomorrow and if so we'll have a four day game to begin with. If that's right - and maybe I'm just being optimistic as I'm going - I would expect Virdi to make the team with Overton deservedly getting the chop. Agree about Jacks and Moriarty being the others on the bench.

The crocked Toblerone Jones misses out for Middlesex. A shame for him and them but handy for Surrey as he's one of those players who normally saves his best for when against us.

As expected Jacks, Moriarty and Overton miss out

Middlesex win toss and bowl

Excellent first session from Burns and Stoneman

Now lost 5 for 7 runs!

135/0 to 142/6. If you're going to collapse, do it in style.

kingdaveeagle wrote:Now lost 5 for 7 runs!

Did all the players feel sorry for the shocking umpiring decision that gave rocky out?

After the 2 shocking decisions to get rid of the openers, complete lack of application from the next 4, all got themselves out

2 more down already this morning - you'd have thought it was worse for the bowlers in the gales.

rain wins again

Highest identical 1st wicket partnerships in both innings of a first-class match:

135 K Wessels/J Barclay Sussex v Somerset Hove 1979
135 R Burns/M Stoneman Surrey v Middlesex The Oval 2021

@AWSStats

I’d take that as a win!

100 for Burns

You a bit anxious, JimBob? I reckon we'll end up with the draw but can understand if you're not happy atm.

Utterly pathetic bowling from Surrey, and the time wasting is embarrassing

guildfordbat wrote:You a bit anxious, JimBob? I reckon we'll end up with the draw but can understand if you're not happy atm.

well unbelievably from a game we should have been winning we have rain to thank for a draw

Goodbye Roach its been a pleasure

jimbobgooner wrote:Goodbye Roach its been a pleasure

As Olly knows, I don't bet but those of you who do might want to consider making a small wager on him returning to Surrey. I'm sure we'll do all we can to get him back in a year or so. I was at the Oval yesterday and he was in fine form. Deservedly popular with his teammates and the crowd as he gave it everything.

Lovely to be back at the ground with some friends and to see a few other familiar faces. That includes the regular stewards who are top guys and have had it tough during lockdown.

Besides Roach, highlight for me of Surrey's play yesterday was our catching - a couple of beauties taken by Clarke and Pope.

Hard to meaningfully judge a game in which so much time was lost to the weather. I guess both sides merit praise for making a real game of it in those circumstances. However, I thought we were off the money at times. I was looking for us to get to 150 last night - we made 135/0, so that's a small quibble. However, from there with all 10 wickets in hand, I would have tried to push on more this morning. For once, I agree with Butcher on Sky - we declared 2 down and set them 290. If we had properly gone for it (?? Pope at 3, J Clark at 4) we may have been able to set them 330 in the same time even if we had lost 7 wickets in the process. Echoing JDizzle and others in the recent past, Amla is too often a disadvantage when you need to motor.

A couple of gripes about Burns' captaincy today. He delayed too long in giving Virdi a bowl and was slow to realise Middlesex had given up the chase and were trying to shut up shop. Extremely unlikely to have made a difference to the result but he should have had fielders closer in rather than patrolling the boundary with Roach firing and them 6 down.

Nice report Guildford - and glad to hear you got back in for a game. Hopefully the sun will shine on cricket in this country again soon!