v Surrey TSL2 @ The Oval Sunday 28 August 2005

Scorecard

The Other Site - Surrey Lions

The position is that Surrey are one position below us and we have four games left.  All the teams above us have one game in hand and we are 6 points from the third place position with 4 games left (including this one).  It's simple really...all we can try and do is win all four games.  It's then up to every other team to sort themselves out and then see what we are left with.  A play off might be something we have a chance of - a very very slim chance!

We arrive here on the back of a victory at Colchester and the trouncing of Durham last week but we have injury issues in the pace department.  Will Ian Blackwell pack the side with spin and leave Michael Munday in or is/are Caddick and/or Johnson available for this game? Woody has had a bit of a lean spell but the great thing now is that as he loses a bit of shine, John Francis and especially James Hildreth come into this game with increased confidence of doing the business.

The definite places (bar injuries we don't know about) are Matt Wood, Carl Gazzard, Ian Blackwell, James Hildreth, John Francis, Charl Langeveldt, Keith Parsons, Arul Suppiah and (and who would have said this a week ago!) Rob Woodman.  The combinations after that depend on the availability of injured players and what the wicket sugggests to the captain.  Mike Munday may get a nod on a dry and dusty strip.  Andy Caddick may be fit but still be rested for the Championship run in if Richard Johnson is available.  All these possibilities will decide whether we see Wes Durston this afternoon.  All a bit open - but we'll know in about 20 minutes!

Well Simon Francis and Wes get the nod as the other two players.  The other seamers aren't fit one would assume and Ian B expects there to be something for the slows but not a big spinners' wicket.  Surrey have won the toss and decided to set a total.  If the weather is anything like it is in West Somerset and with Butcher, Ramprakash, Batty, Mahmood and Brown waiting to take the field  then we have a game on our hands!

Have a listen to Phil Tottle et al at the Brit Oval on Somerset Sound.

The game does not start like the Durham game where Langeveldt and Woodman kept the batsmen down to 50-ish off 15.  Today they don't have the same levels of control and Surrey get off to a decent start, bringing up 50 in less than 10 and looking to move the score on quickly against our seam attack.  Batty and Benning start to take runs from Simon Francis when he is introduced after 9 - he went for 10 off his first - and so Ian Blackwell turned to his spin men as soon as the 15 overs were completed and he could move his field about.  He also tried the 'Smith' tactic of keeping the bowling spells short to keep the batsmen on their toes.

However, it is some sharp fielding from James Hildreth that gets us our first victim as Batty is run out with the score on 85.  Then the slows tighten the screw and the run rate drops dramatically under the bowling of Blackwell and Suppiah (who seems to be preferred as the second spinner now - possibly because he is a 'lefty').  We have to wait another 50 runs for the first bowling wicket - but the good news is that we also have to wait quite a long time - when Benning is stumped by Gazzard off Suppiah.

Arul then pulls the teeth of Surrey's batting attack by getting both Ramprakash (bowled around his legs) at 141 and then the very dangerous Brown at 155 C&B'd.  155 for 4 is a much better position to be in and thoughts of 300 plus disappear as Butcher (who is a bit rusty) and Walters try and reset the Brownhats' innings.  That tactic is damaged by Blackwell  bowling Butcher at 184 but that brings in Mahood - Surrey's last gasp for a big total.  Blackie keeps faith with the spiin men and doesn't turn to the 'dibbly dobbly' of Keith Parsons which bamboozles so many.  Durston pays his captain for that faith by removing Mahmood cheaply at 207 caught by Woodman.  Salisbury and Walters try to get at far as they can, and while doing that Walters is run out at the end of the innings as they push the score to a disappointing 237.

That is short on this wicket if we can get ourselves in.  They have only two spinners in Doshi and Salisbury - one excellent and one erratic (guess which is which)!  It could be a difficult total if Surrey can put on early pressure and get amongst our front end.  This is something they didn't do at Taunton earlier in the season when they seemed to be disinterested in the course of the game and their roles within it.  It doesn't seem the same here at their home ground.

First over, something we have got used to in the last fortnight.  Matt Wood caught by Brown off Mahmood for no score and Arul Suppiah is in early, at least it is something he has got used to.  The press is on from the start commanded by the duo of 'Ramps' and 'Butch'.  Somerset bed in, partly because Suppiah needs to settle in and also because Frank Junior isn't a 'tip and run' opener (possibly not the man to open in the one day stuff).  Here, that isn't a problem, as long as they keep the score moving.  10 off the first 5 overs isn't mobile enough but we can only hope that they start to accelerate between 5 and 15.

This game seemed to be all about which bunch of spinners could keep the batsmen in check better and although we lost John Francis before the spin onslaught with 55 up and Suppiah at 89 when Doshi came on to bowl, this game was always there for the taking by the batsman who could handle the slow attack.  Those two basmen were James Hildreth, so "in form" as to be unbeatable in the past week and Ian Blackwell who can destroy a bowler if he believes in himself and get the right kind of raw material from him.  Doshi, Salisbury and Ramprakash served it up and the two Somerset men ate it up with gusto!  A 120 run partnership taking us from 89 for 3 to 209 for 4 put this game away in style.  The Surrey slow men just didn't bowl well; Salisbury's 73 off 9 came mostly off the first 6, Ramps went for a decent 26 and Doshi went for 48 off nearly 7.  There wasn't that amount of runs to play with and the seamers weren't going to keep us in check on this wicket.

The Surrey fielding didn't help, some of it suggested they'd popped out to the local school to enlist a few of the eleven.  Can't have those kinds of attitude in this day and age boys.  Ian B didn't see the game out, he went for 88 off 53 balls with 29 runs needed.  Keith Parsons didn't stay around long so it was left to Wes Durston to help the present batting 'golden boy' JH finish the win with another not out score of 75.  So that (I have it on good authority) is 277 runs in 3 days without being out.

We'll settle for that and the four points.  It may not do us any good in the 2005 season but it is a much better feeling than a loss.  Well done boys, a week off and then Warwickshire under the floods - now what will depend on the result of that game I wonder?

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