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Some of the biggest matches coming up in Somerset history
DeanSwift 06 August, 2017 19:51
and we decide to rest one of our best bowlers?

poor Lewis Gregory

You also ask the following

Why has Lewis Gregory been made unavailable for the rest of the County Championship this season?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2017 20:06 by Grockle.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Mike TA1 06 August, 2017 20:14
Lewis Gregory being not available must be to do with his back, he may have been advised not to play any more until he has had his OP.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Grockle 06 August, 2017 20:16
But it's only four day is ir not? He is still OK for T20?



(Sm72)

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 20:32
That's what we must assume given what they have said, yes.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Roger ivanhoe 06 August, 2017 20:33
Peter Trego not selected for tomorrows game.Completely out of favour.

Mail out tonight shows Van de Merwe and Van Meekeran missing in 11 stated.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 20:35
I don't understand, Roger, do you mean they've sent out a list of an XI for tomorrow already? That's what it says on tomorrow's scorecards you mean?

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 20:47
Oh, I get it Mail as in name of paper.

I read mail-out and I thought surely we're not sending out details of the XI the day before the match!

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Roger ivanhoe 06 August, 2017 20:51
AGod, we 1875 and Long Room members have a pre match mail out, amongst which shows a picture of the 11 named shirts.

Of course it might change overnight.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 20:58
Ah!

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 21:00
Personally, I think that if we were to leave out for VDM and PVM then that would represent too defensive a team selection for a must-win game.

Besides, Surrey would surely be pleased if we were to omit VDM..

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Grizzers 06 August, 2017 21:01
I tend to think that CP's view of 19.33 re Tom is pretty much on the mark.

I'll be very happy indeed if he gets a ton.

Grizzzly

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 06 August, 2017 21:04
Tom's collapse in form at Taunton coincided with the change in nature of home tracks, rather than with the award of the captaincy.

However the extra demands of being leader must be a time-suck, the opportunity cost of which is more time to spend on his own game (trying to figure out how to adjust his game to the turning tracks).

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Grockle 06 August, 2017 21:08
Weren't there comments about technical issues as well at the start of the season?



(Sm72)

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Nailsea_Fizz 06 August, 2017 21:20
Sorry to ask but is a time-suck a technical issue with Tom's batting.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
mikeindex 06 August, 2017 21:32
Is a time-suck something that has happened to the English language since I learned it (like, e.g., a selfie)?

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
wsm fan 07 August, 2017 00:06
Fantastic win.
All the sweeter being Surrey and them having it win at 47/5.
Hildy RVDM & Craig just superb. Played the situation to percection.
So easy 5 down to block. Let rate climb to 12/14s then game is gone.
Our approach was spot on and RVDM & Craig hit 2 monsters OVER the Caddick pavilion.....

Poor Gareth, he cant enjoy Taunton too much. He thre a tantrum when a Clarke ct behind appeal was refused and given wide. Appeared he had a telling off from the umpire but bad behaviour from that nasty man something we are quite used to.....

Shame it appears the weather is going to scupper mostof days 1&2 this week. Really need an old 2 day bunsen burner to aid a positive result from this one.....

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Farmer White 07 August, 2017 03:19
T20 Taunton 6th August 2017

Surrey 157-6 (20.0 overs) Somerset 158-6 (18.2/20.0 overs)

Another full house although as always with full houses there were small groups of empty seats in the Trescothick and Somerset Stands. The lower deck of the Somerset Pavilion was tight packed, mainly with County Championship age members including, for a change in this form of cricket, me. The family stand bristled with furry headbands and inflatable batons and the temporary stand was pretty well full. I had time to count another 42 watching from the flats including a good impersonation of a row of parrots on a perch at the front of the roof terrace. It was a crowd that buzzed in anticipation of another classic game. I am not sure it was a classic but it certainly held the attention and as far as I could see no-one left.

The buzz settled a bit as Surrey got off to a solid start especially after three successive boundaries in van Meekeren’s first over. 30-0 off 3 overs was not though running away with the game in a T20 powerplay and Roy seemed to be struggling to get the ball away. Two boundaries off Groenewald’s first over started to raise the anxiety in Somerset hearts but then Finch tried for a boundary too many. 39-1 off 4 overs. Overton followed up perfectly by tying Roy up and then bowling him with a perfect length arrow straight ball that went straight through his cross batted shot and upended the middle stump. Is there a sight in cricket to match that of a middle stump heading for the keeper?

The crowd were buzzing again and then cheering as Stoneman looked bamboozled by a Waller leg-break which pitched middle and hit the left-handers’s leg stump. I had the perfect view of the perfect leg-break. If Waller had developed such a ball as his stock ball over the years he might have found himself playing in the Championship today. From my seat behind the arm it looked a thing of beauty. I am still replaying it in my mind. 53-3 in the seventh and the game was in the balance. Somerset pegging back Surrey’s solid start. The Family Stand celebrated with its own private Mexican wave for it went no further but was as exuberant as any full blown Mexican Wave you will see. A Mexican wave celebrating good cricket. Now there’s a thing.

Now the fielders started to play their part seemingly missing nothing. Myburg diving hard and long to his left at mid-wicket to stop a fierce drive in its tracks. Abell racing in the deep to intercept two strokes marked for the boundary. All the time Somerset’s rotating bowlers keeping things as tight as they can be kept in a T20. 69-3 off 10 is almost miraculous for the bowling side. The PA announcer gave another turn to the screw, “At the current run rate Surrey will score 138 off their 20 overs.” Both batsmen, Pope and Henriques perhaps jolted, looked simultaneously at the scoreboard.

An impression was beginning to build though at least in my mind. Perhaps batting was not quite as easy as it might be. Perhaps the pitch not quite as easy as it could be. The batsmen were not batting with quite the freedom associated with T20. Too many balls were finding the fielders. Though sometimes the fielders, the inner ring in particular, were finding the ball with some exceptional stops. Not always, Overton once ran in from the Colin Atkinson boundary for one of those ‘is it a catch or isn’t it’ lofted balls off Waller’s bowling, finally opted to save the boundary only for the ball to spin viciously off the turf back past him in the direction he had run around from.

Now Henriques and Pope started to get the measure of the pitch. Henriques rotating the strike and Pope hitting out. Pope perfectly scooped one from Overton for four and then only just dug out a fearsome yorker the next ball. Those two balls perhaps exemplifying the tussle between bat and ball that was developing. Only the best would do. The fielders too straining every sinew. Myburg a brilliant diving stop at backward point. Abell once running impossibly far along the front of the Family and Alcohol Free Stands in front of the Ondatjee Pavilion to dive full length for a catch only just failing by inches but getting enough hand on it to prevent four. The two stands applauded him all the way back to his mark. This was battle royal. By the end of the 15th Surrey were 113-3. Hardly riches but a growing recovery against all the Somerset pressure and Pope was looking dangerous.

Cometh the hour cometh Roelf van de Merwe. Pope charged him, missed, Davies took it cleanly and the bails were off. Cue relieved cheering for Pope’s had been the innings of the match so far. 46 off 31 balls. He had been the only Surrey batsman seemingly capable of taking on the Somerset attack with profit. It occurred to me though there had been no sixes and getting the ball to the boundary had not looked easy for anyone. When Henriques fell to Gregory trying for the boundary Surrey were 123-5 in the 17th. Sam Curran made no headway as Somerset closed in removing him for 3. 135-6 in the 18th.

157-6 at the close was due to Rikki Clarke, to my mind, deciding to play within the pitch’s capacities. He started to hit the ball softly to the deep field initially for a brace of twos. He and Tom Curran settled for rotating the strike and the score might not have passed 150 but for a slightly ragged final over from Gregory which included a wide and the first 6 of the innings from Curran.

“We can do this can’t we?” someone asked me not with an entirely confident tone. I wasn’t sure. 158 in T20 these days is usually within range of a chase. I was worried though that the pitch, whilst not holding any demons might not be letting the ball come onto the bat. It had not looked easy hitting boundaries and I did wonder if Surrey had actually played quite a clever game, kept their heads and posted a tricky total.

The people in the flats must have thought there was a game on for by now there were approaching 80 people watching from the balconies and the roof terrace. One for every 100 in the ground. There was a real hubbub about the place as some stretched their legs for there is not much time to do anything else in the interval of a T20 match. A queue of precisely four furry headed children waited for balloons to be twisted into animals and a couple of others passed by with theirs already made. The queue for hot drinks and pies in the back of the Somerset Pavilion was more like twenty long and the queue at the bar in the car park about half a dozen.

Steven Davies did not really answer the question about the pitch for he turned his first legitimate ball straight into the hands of short fine leg. 2-1. Two ducks have now followed his brief renaissance and this looked all too like his early season form. Gregory struggled against Dernbach playing to deep point with a stroke which seemed not to be timed and then edged much more quickly through the empty first slip for four. Next he tried to cut but played over the ball which had perhaps not bounce as much as he was anticipating.

Sam Curran followed up by knocking Myburg off his feet with a spearing yorker before Gregory finally middle a pull for four, the first really clean stroke of the innings off its 10th ball. Off the last ball of the over Gregory tried to hit the ball into the Botham Stand only to get under it and sky it well short of the boundary and the approaching fielder. Dernbach was mixing pace, line and length in as many combinations of those three things as it is possible to do until Myburg popped one up and wide of mid-off but not wide enough. Allenby could only defend his first four from Sam Curran, then square drove beautifully for four, took a single for the strike, could not score off the first three from Tom Curran before lifting the fourth to Finch. This was either hard work or Somerset were making heavy weather of it.

Myburg and Allenby had both gone to what I tend to call slow pitch catches at least when they keep happening in the same innings. Neither got hold of an aggressive shot which looped to the fielder. Now Gregory got under one from Clarke and Abell pulled one straight to midwicket. All five wickets caught. At least four with insufficient power in the shot due to being miss hit. Why, I have always wondered and it is not only Somerset that do this, do batsmen having seen the other side struggle to get the ball away and their own side looping catches continue in the same mode? Easy to be wise from beyond the boundary I suppose. A bit harder against a rising required run rate. Harder still to recover from 47-5. Dernbach and the Currans it has to be acknowledged had bowled with considerable skill and even greater effect and in my view Dernbach’s first three overs in this match were as good as you will see in T20 cricket.

Somerset all batted in the same mode, that is until Hildreth established himself. Not without a couple of alarums. He was dropped early off a not too difficult chance and he was perilously close again with a reverse sweep. After that he played with a mixture of placement in front of the wicket and, particularly, with deft deflections behind the wicket especially on the off side. Again and again as the ball came through, the bat angled and the ball travelled Hildreth’s chosen route. It was a joy to watch. I trust in the Championship match he remembers there will be slips in place. Here it was a match turning performance.

Somerset were 47-5 at the start of the ninth over. Hildreth’s deflections kept him well ahead of a run a ball but they also gave van de Merwe and then Overton the strike. The result was explosive and decisive. Off 38 balls they scored 71 runs. The join between the Hildreth van de Merwe partnership and the Hildreth Overton partnership seamless. They hit five sixes to Surrey’s one. No sign of a slow pitch now. Even one or two of the members who had seen cricket before the Gillette Cup were singing along to “Sweet Caroline” and there was not a seat to be had in the lower deck of the Somerset Pavilion or a face anywhere that I could see without a smile. The person a couple of seats along from me, looking astonished at what he was seeing asked where one of Overton’s sixes had gone. It had gone straight over the top of the Caddyshack and the pitch was dead centre for this match. Whether he saw Roelof van de Merwe’s head off in the same direction I don’t know.

The crowd had stayed to the end. 47-5 had not daunted them or they were just having a good time or both. The only section of the crowd that seemed to have stayed away in numbers were the seagulls. Normally circling as a match comes to a close the few that were visible stayed pretty well beyond the perimeter even of the Trescothick Stand. Perhaps they were daunted by 8000 cheering people or perhaps they had seen Overton’s huge six and decided discretion was the better part of valour.

Not for the first time Surrey had a game at Taunton as good as wrapped up only to find the wrapping unravelling before their eyes or when Overton and van de Merwe were on strike being torn to shreds. Somerset were home with ten balls to spare. “I never thought that would happen,” said the woman next to me. I don’t think anyone did at 47-5. Many more games like this and the people who own the flats will have a little more equity in them than they thought. At the very least 80 of them and their visitors had had quite an afternoon. So had we all if the bubbling throng that left the ground was anything to go by. Even the sun, which had stayed resolutely behind the clouds for most of the match, came out to watch those last two partnerships.

There is something deep in the heart of this Somerset team that sometimes stands up to be counted when backs are hardest against the wall. It appears as if from nowhere and when it does it is formidably invincible. When it shows itself it can leave the opposition stunned. It happened in the County Championship in those nailbiting matches at the end of last season, not least against Surrey. It happened against Surrey in the Royal London Cup earlier this season. It happened again yesterday.

I will sleep more easily this week if we do not try to rely upon it once too often against Surrey. Three times in succession is testing it, and my nerves, far enough.

The folk concert I went to in the heart of the Quantocks after the match was much more restful.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Grizzers 07 August, 2017 04:48
Nocturnal eloquence indeed FW.

I shall sleep soundly tonight having read your delightful and atmospheric report.

Grizzzly

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 06:25
I assume it's the local forecast that is so dire, WSM?

For once, let's hope the crummy Met Office are right.

Their forecast?

Not too bad at all.

It indicates some temporary disruption today around lunchtime, but otherwise mainly dry.

Tomorrow, it suggests play may be questionable from mid-afternoon onwards.

So if they are actually right, then we can probably expect to get 60-70% of play in over the first couple of days.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
geordie moonraker 07 August, 2017 08:52
Weather forecasts! The forecast for Newcastle is partly sunny all day with sunshine at present. It is hammering down.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Farmer White 07 August, 2017 09:15
Thank you Grizzly. Weather does not look too eloquent this morning although not raining at the moment a few miles from the ground.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
cricketharris 07 August, 2017 09:31
Go on like that, Farmer White, and you'll be allowed a free seat in the media room.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Farmer White 07 August, 2017 09:39
Thank you cricketharris. But is there any atmosphere up there I wonder? To my mind cricket without atmosphere is like a scone without the cream.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 11:17
Did we know that Sanga would be absent?

I consider out team selection to have been a tad too defensive, to be honest. I'd rather have seen VDM in the line-up instead of Jim. I've no doubt that Surrey would rather see the Aussie than the Saffer, given recent events against them.

Still, I suppose the sight of Timmy G and Jack may bring them out in hives. I am glad that Tim Rouse has kept his place.

I've just heard that Surrey sent us in - is that right?

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Rod1883 07 August, 2017 11:20
Yep, no toss, Surrey chose to bowl

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 11:23
Thanks, Rod.

Our friend Mr Batty must be anticipating one of the following then:

a) The track will do lots up front.

b) The track will get easier as the match goes on, no matter what it does or doesn't do first up.

c) There is little chance of the track taking sharp turn or, if it does, that will be outweighed by the advantage of early life for the seamers.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 11:34
I see they've picked Meaker who is usually either brilliant or utterly useless, with little in between. Let's hope for the latter in this one.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 11:43
Not enough from Tresco, really, unless - perhaps - this does prove a very low-scoring game.

And Meaker will, presumably, have his tail up already.

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
Somerset LaLaLa 07 August, 2017 11:52
If you don't understand time-suck you ought to 'step up to the plate'

Re: Welcome to 'Surrey Week'
AGod 07 August, 2017 11:58
A familiar shambles hoves into view with the all-too-familiar failure of the senior batsmen - the failures that have dominated this entire CC season.

Current Page: 2 of 12

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