surrey vs kent county championship division 2

First topic message reminder :

right back to 4 day cricket before the last 2 group games in the t/20
Zafar Ansari and Chris Tremlett are included in the twelve man squad for the LV= County Championship match starting tomorrow against Kent at the Kia Oval.
The full Surrey squad to face Kent in the LV= County Championship at the Kia Oval from Sunday 10th July to Wednesday 13th July is:
Rory Hamilton-Brown (Captain)
Jason Roy
Mark Ramprakash
Zander de Bruyn
Steven Davies (Wicket Keeper)
Tom Maynard
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Yasir Arafat
Stuart Meaker
Tim Linley
Chris Tremlett
who would you leave out from that 12?

318 lead at the moment a very useful last wkt partnership

First hour gone and we are still batting.
We played Viscount at least 11 more runs will do that will be a lead of 330

All out 320 lead... now done to the bowlers

All out 184 - Kent need 320 to win. Well done to Viscount and Tremlett for getting us over the 300 mark. Balcombe gets his best ever figures as well though!

322 for Kent to win after wonderfully annoying (for Kent) partnership of about 35 by Trem and the Viscount. Apologies for vagueness: cricinfo and other scorecard feeds are down.

the viscount strikes in his 1st over

Batty mystifies Northeast, 31/2.

Just popping up for air between mega shifts down the mine!

Very effective contribution this morning from the Viscount with bat and ball.

Far too early to listen to the fat lady but looking good ....

the pie man is making this look easy

If we don't break this partnership soon we've lost this which is so depressing I don't even want to think about it!

Batty 8 overs for 41, Ansari 6 overs for 7...

100 partnership

Highest Kent 3rd wicket partnership of the season as well. Seriously?

Viscount to the rescue! Wasn't quite the 'Key' wicket we needed but I'll take it!

everytime i think we take one step foward we take 2 steps back

Looks like you chaps have had a couple of anxious hours whilst I've been underground but the tide seems to have turned our way again with two wickets late in the afternoon session. Well done the Viscount and the Gaffer!

That last wicket stand between Tremors and the Viscount is looking increasingly important.

Need to get Key now ....

I think it will continue to be anxious until at least Jones/Key and Blake are all out. It's a weird situation, I have them as favourites but if positions were switched I would have the bowlers as favourites. That's how confident I am in our ability to finish a game off.

Key 100*, his highest score of the season, in a second innings run chase on a helpful pitch against pretty much the best attack we can field...

Just rejoined things at exactly the right time - Batty nabs Jones.

Kent need 107 more. We need 5 wickets.

Surely Blake can't repeat his heroics of the first innings. After him, it's a long tail so it should be drinks with the Corporal in the mess tonight ....

Under 100 needed with 5 wickets left. Still close.

You sound much more confident than me guildford!

Carrot,

I'm surprising myself with my confidence.

I do think though that Tremors and Meaker will do some quick and serious damage to the tail with the new balll. We just need one more to get to the tail ....

As I said earlier, that was a vital tenth wicket partnership between Tremors and the Viscount.

Na, we've lost this, I'm fairly certain.

Carrot,

I'm coming round to your way of thinking. We need a sixth wicket tonight.

Five will be a heck of a lot to get in about 75 minutes' play tomorrow morning ....

WE'VE GOT IT!!!

Blake's inexperience lets him down as he's bowled by Norah!

Lunchtime drinks in the mess with the Corporal now seem a real possibility ....

Riaz to the rescue, giving Ramps some more catching practice -- out for 0

'Awful cricket from Riaz' - per Churchy - as he gifts his wicket to the Viscount.

Key is still there but he will only have three rabbits to keep him company.

We are not only back in this, we're on top ....

Riaz played a ridiculous slog apparently, makes me a lot happier for tonight anyway!

the viscount strikes again 8 down now i dont know if my heart can take this

57 to win 2wts left

we have to try to keep key off strike

in to the last over come on tremlett

2 balls left come on the big man

and that's stumps with kent needing 52 and us needing 2 wkts

We need to be cleverer in the field tomorrow, don't let Key take all the strike, he is obviously going to look for singles off the 5th/6th ball of an over - don't let him!

how crucial will that last wkt stand prove?

No one - apart from perhaps a Surrey supporter - would prefer to be in Kent's position now ....

Very well done to the Viscount. A sensible knock this morning and seven wickets so far in the match giving him thirty-two for the season. [For readers of the old 606 and especially the Corporal - I must take those biscuits for him to Guildford next week. Did we ever decide on mint or orange? ]

Looking forward to an early morning birthday drink to celebrate

Sorry - posted duplicate in error

All nicely teed up for a Surrey win tomorrow .
Even with Key in great form, we won't concede 52 runs for the last two wickets, surely ? I sense a few bitten nails in both camps in SE11 tomorrow.

I think we'll win now, probably, alhough I reckon it will be very close in the end, can't see us coming out and getting 2 wickets in the first 3/4 overs.

Evening all! I skipped military duties today and went to the Oval. The posts above are a pretty accurate reflection of my emotions during the day...

Very tense at times - for most of the afternoon I had more or less given the match up as lost - the bowling between lunch and tea was very ordinary and Meaker had a bit of a shocker, spraying the ball all over the place.

The Viscount showed all the qualities for which he is admired on these boards and fully deserved his four wickets. I was a bit disappointed in Tremlett - reasonably OK but didn't often threaten to take wickets. Ansari was very tidy without for the most part appearing all that threatening. He is also very lively in the field.

Key batted superbly. Later on in the afternoon several Kent batsmen threw their wickets away - Jones danced down the wicket and as far as I could make out was both caught and stumped. Blake after batting very positively played no shot to the Batty mystery ball - which he had been saving up for about 90 minutes - while Riaz had an ugly swipe.

The Viscount and Tremlett both batted well for their last wicket partnership and as has been observed that partnership could be crucial.

I'll be at work tomorrow but help yourselves to lunchtime drinks in the mess for a wake or even celebrations.....

Thanks for your report, Corporal. Glad you had a good day - no doubt you left your troops fully briefed and the nation's security in safe hands.

Particularly interested in your comments about Ansari. Must be tricky given his inexperience for the Gaffer to switch from a role of essentially run containment in a small batch of t20 games to wicket taking in his first four dayer.

Hope the wireless operator tunes into Churchy for you in the morning ....

I'm disappointed that a part timer like Denly has managed to be more threatening than both of our spinners, he took 6 of his 20 career wickets in this match!

On another note - 3 Kent partnerships have been their highest of the season so far for the wicket. Also, Key, Blake and Jones have all got their highest scores of the season in this match.

I saw Denly bowl at our tail enders this morning. He gave the ball much more air than either Batty or Ansari. Tho he did get hit for 14 by Tremlett in one over. Towards the end of his spell today Batty gained in confidence and looked a bit more threatening.

Guildford I recall conducting a poll on 606 re the colour of the biscuit. Voter turnout was a bit patchy - I have a feeling the result was decisive - perhaps 5:2. But I have long since forgotten what the result was. Edit: on reflection I have a feeling that the greens won

for the celebrations.....

I have a really bad feeling about this one. Sort of this in reverse:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/cricket/county_ch_1/scorecards/5151/scorecard_hi.stm

Simon - I'm at best 50/50 about Surrey's prospects. Key looked unmovable today and well able to take singles whenever he felt like it....

Fascinating scorecard - remarkable comeback by Surrey. In effect we won that match by only one wicket since the last man in would have been Ed Giddins

Corporal - thanks for the good wishes.

Simon - fascinating scorecard, as the Corporal says.

Just looked up Ed Giddins on cricinfo. I still think of him as a young man - he's actually 40 next week! The Corporal is right about his batting - a test match batting average of 2.50 from 4 tests.

I assume Rikki Clarke was preferred to Ben Hollioake for the 2002 match. Hmmm.

I'm quite confident about the morning. Key has clearly batted very well but he can't continually bat at both ends. The yorkers of Tremlett, pace of Meaker and craft of the Viscount combined can surely pick up the wickets of two rabbits for forty runs. Ah well, time for one more before bed ....

I just noticed Kent's number 11 averages 50... were doomed

In all honesty I would bowl Meaker and Tremlett first thing and hope that there 10 and 11 struggle with the 90 mph pace.

No disrespect to Key as I think he is a great player but he must be the unfittest player on the county circuit and we should be able to stop him taking quick singles towards the end of the over.

Whats the new ball situation? have we already taken it or is it due anytime soon???

Depressed - my friend, please calm down down and look forward to early lunchtime celebratory drinks in the officers' mess care of the Corporal.

Yes, Shaw,Kent's number eleven, does have a batting average so far this season of 50 but that's just a quirk of the stats. By the same token, Jason Roy is top of our bowling averages but you wouldn't give him the first over today! The main element for me is that Shaw bats below Joseph who can hardly recognise a bat let alone hold one.

I think we took the new ball in the extra half hour last night. It certainly became due last night.

The weather here seems delightful for bowling - cloudy with a lot of breeze.

Finally, good point about Key's fitness. Surrey's kitchen staff need to keep the bacon butties going his way before play!

Now sit back, get ready to listen to Churchy and enjoy ....

depressedsurreyfan wrote:I just noticed Kent's number 11 averages 50... were doomed

In all honesty I would bowl Meaker and Tremlett first thing and hope that there 10 and 11 struggle with the 90 mph pace.

No disrespect to Key as I think he is a great player but he must be the unfittest player on the county circuit and we should be able to stop him taking quick singles towards the end of the over.

Whats the new ball situation? have we already taken it or is it due anytime soon???

Are you sure about that depressed I thought cosgrove makes key look like Kate moss

key hits tremlett for 6 to bring up his 150