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?

Too soon to say how good the score of 387 was. But I'm rather expecting that it's not too bad a score to defend - particularly as we have put out a fairly decent bowling attack. Hopefully that wicket for Meaker will encourage him to show his previous form in this competition.

Corporal - re ''how good the score of 387 was''.

This morning there was an unusual and considerable difference of opinion between Churchy and Jonny Barran (who generally knows his stuff despite the ''Lord Barran of Broadcastshire'' tag that Churchy gives him and he plays up to) as to a par score.

Churchy suggested 400 whilst Jonny Barran thought 250 was more like it ....

Hmm ... decent score probably was somewhere between the 2 experts' views, I would guess. Today was an inconclusive glass half empty/full sort of day: 1/2 full -> The Brain and Batty played well and made almost 250 between them ... 1/2 empty -> without which we were looking at barely 150.

All we can say so far with any certainty is that 2 players saved us from a score that definitely would have been well below par having won the toss and batted.

Simon - very true although the Viscount and Meaker topped the glass up as last orders were being called ....

Without knowing conditions, after we chose to bat my target was 400 so I'm happy we got near enough that much. The main disappointments for me were Hyphen, Maynard and Davies as they all 'got in' and didn't make a decent contribution. For me that's worse than being out early on like Ramps and Roy as they've done the hard part. I still would prefer Roy at 6 and Harinath to open with Hyphen, who I think has a chance of becoming a solid opener for us. Obviously this means someone would have to miss out, I'm still edging towards dropping one of the spinners to fit in Harinath, but thats just me.

I remember reading Ramps' autobiography and him saying that a new, young batsman when he was being brought in was started at number 6/7 and gradually moved up the order as they gained form/confidence and experience. This, I think, is what should be happening with Roy.

Anyway, what a fantastic innings from The Brain, played at a very very good pace as well, excellent support from Batty with his mystery bat (that one made me laugh guildford). Someone had to stand up today and they did exactly that, which is good to see. I am very happy at the end of play today, hopefully Viscount, Meaker and Tremlett can tear into the top order and then let our spinners do some damage later on tomorrow. Wishful thinking? I'd be hoping to keep them under 300 with what should be a decent attack.

Carrot - following up your middle para, for our first CC match of this season - home to Northants - Roy was listed on the scorecard at number seven but was left out at the last minute for Schofield.

Interesting bit of trivia... in the 2009 season, Kent played Surrey at the Oval on exactly the same dates (10-13 July). Uncannily, Surrey made almost exactly the same score, 386, batting first...

... then four Kent players (including three playing in this game) made centuries

Surrey only have one player (guess who) in the current team who also played two years ago. I was there on the final day then and witnessed what turned out to be Mark Butcher's last innings for Surrey.

Full details here http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/383014.html Let's hope the history book on the shelf does not always repeat itself.

I notice someone mention that Denly (a part timer) was getting some turn. This makes Boom Boom Batty's mystery ball a scary thought. I fully expect him to rip through the Kent order today bedazzaling all of us with his vaiation.

Meaker's just gone for 3 successive fours - from Rob Key.

Great mornings work by the lads, but this 7th wicket stand is becoming 'annoying'

105 stand at 4 and a half an over and both past 50 now - do we ever maintain pressure on a team?? - so what looked like a follow on 250+ behind will probably turn into a slight 1st inns lead...........if we ever get one of these out

Hi gooch yet again a dropped catch has proved costly rhb the culprit this time when Blake was just starting his innings

I'm getting very very annoyed right now. It really is pathetic how we let teams off the hook time and time again. Very poor. Here's my list of things that WILL happen in a Surrey CC match:

One of the opposition will get his highest ever score.
One of the opposition will get his best ever bowling figures.
At least one of the last 4 wickets will have a 100+ partnership.
I will be tearing my hair out and forced to wear a hat for the next few weeks.

Batty's mystery ball (eventually!) snares a wicket!

At least you've got some hair to tear out Carrot!

Should hope I do, I'm 24!

Thank fudge for that wicket, I have to say that up to that point our spinners had been about as effective as I suspected they would be. Quite disappointed that although he has kept it tight Tremlett is wicketless, he's one of the first on the team sheet for the Test side, surely he can knock over the Kent tail?

Another wkt for Nora

So 2 for Batty, 1 for Tremlett and a run out for Blake on 96 - I actually feel quite sorry for him, was he trying to get on strike to get to his 100?

All out 250 - I should rant more often....

Tremlett bowls balcombe with a yorker

137 lead, I'm sure we would've took that at 11am yesterday. Just disappointing that we always let teams off the hook! Need to be setting them 400+ with our 'spinners' who even on 4th day pitches, never seem to be able to run through teams!

blake was on 0 when he was dropped by rhb if he took that chance they would have been 87 for 7 carrot why did you not rant then

rhb out to a shocker from the umpire 7 for 1

roy lbw plum this time 16 for 2

The Brain has gon 65 for 3 lead of 205.

DOes anyone know what kind of pitch it is???

With only one batsman on either side getting a score which has dragged the totals up I would assume it is genrally offering the bowlers some help??

4 down now - all LBW, it must be moving about, or that's terrible footwork by them all!

Now Ramps has departed, we never like making things easy for ourselves.

thegooch7 wrote:4 down now - all LBW, it must be moving about, or that's terrible footwork by them all!

250 lead 6 wkts left

5wkts left

how many did ramps get?

Maynard Gone all we needed to do was get to 265 and set them 400 to win but no we give them a sniff of victory, we should have batted them out of this game

Ramps got 20

depressedsurreyfan wrote:Maynard Gone all we needed to do was get to 265 and set them 400 to win but no we give them a sniff of victory, we should have batted them out of this game

true depressed but the drop by rhb has really hurt us

davies gone now with only 5 overs left in the day a game we should have won now looks like we will lose

Wow Jimbob

Thats more of a depressed comment than me. We still look like we may set them over 300 to win on a pitch which sounds like it has something for the bowlers.

I believe this is a game we should have won which has now become even at 50/50 again.

I know how you feel though we should not have let this happen

depressedsurreyfan wrote:Wow Jimbob

Thats more of a depressed comment than me. We still look like we may set them over 300 to win on a pitch which sounds like it has something for the bowlers.

I believe this is a game we should have won which has now become even at 50/50 again.

I know how you feel though we should not have let this happen

sorry guildford i'm trying not to be as depressed as depressed but as you said this should never have happened and as i write this nora goes 128 for 7

only 3 overs left in the day can we make it

Hair being torn out over here! Anyone know if it's been the conditions or poor batting that's got us here? At least they need more than they got first time around to win but we should have been in a positions to be able to force the follow on after innings 1, not in the position we are in now.

last over of the day

The ball must be turning as Kent are bowling part time spinners Denly and Van Jarsveld alot more than they normally would

Carrotdude wrote:Hair being torn out over here! Anyone know if it's been the conditions or poor batting that's got us here? At least they need more than they got first time around to win but we should have been in a positions to be able to force the follow on after innings 1, not in the position we are in now.

carrott rhb got a shocking lbw decision davies dismissal was soft

275 lead with three wickets left!
We need to set a target of over 300 in the morning.

Well hopefully we can scrape over the 300 barrier tomorrow, every run we get in the morning I'll take as a bonus. If they need over 300 I think we'd still be favourites but they should be chasing an impossible target not a very gettable one

It would be going too far to say we've blown it but it's now much harder than should have been the case.

Tomorrow would be a good time for the tail to wag. Can the Gaffer and his staff deliver runs and then wickets?

It will be very poor if we lose this one. But the bowlers do have a reasonable total to defend - and a lot of batsmen have got out cheaply in the match.

Could hardly be a better time for Ansari to knock up a quick 40 or 50..... but I would be surprised if we were still batting after 30 mins play tomorrow....

Could be a nerve wracking day tomorrow, still confident, sort of....

Ansari out. Denly's best ever figures for the second time in the match

Meaker out, still 15 short of the 300 lead

morning carrot not looking good for 300

300 lead up

Tremlett hits Denly for 2 4's and a 6 to get us over the 300 lead!