v Surrey C&G @ The Oval 7 May 2006

Scorecard

No more Marcus Trescothick for a while then and an absence of Andy Caddick in today's lineup. Arul Suppiah gets his first innings at the number three spot - which probably shows the club's thinking for the Essex game mid-week and Gareth Andrew, once more, gets the nod over Peter Trego in a one dayer.  Surprisingly, no Ian Blackwell either - he is obviously being completely rested in the hope that the spasms of last week don't return - good choice.  It allows the side to prove itself without 3 'mainstays and asks someone else to show the confidence to fight for this one.  We need a good, moral boosting performance today after a 'variable' start to another season.  The good long term thing is that this side still looks capable of providing it on paper!!

The side is:

Wood, Gazzard, Suppiah, Durston, Hildreth, Parsons K, White, Johnson, Cullen, Andrew, Willoughby

Young spinners, some experience in the pace but players with a little to prove after last Monday's debacle.  Lots of promise in the batting line-up but loads of players wanting to make a start to this season.  If we can take Surrey with this eleven then we can take anyone on any day. 

Surrey have won the toss and put us in.  Now is that because the conditions suggest it would be good to bowl first or because they have analysed the fragility of our batting over the past couple of weeks and hope to get among the Somerset first line early?  Well if it was then it has backfired slightly. Carl Gazzard returns to his 'pinch-hitter' role after the departure of Banger and opens with Matt Wood.  46 runs in 38 minutes is a far more confident start and Gazza does his job by providing a platform and kick starting the Wood "machine" before he becomes the Brownhat's first victim at 46 for 15.  It will be interesting to see how Salisbury and Doshi perform on this strip because we are looking for things from the Aussies (especially Cullen) and Wes Durston in our reply.  

Arul Suppiah finally gets onto a cricket pitch for the first time in 2006 at number 3 with a lot depending on himm for the whole season.  Can he consolidate his postion there and give us the stability that has been sigularly lacking up to now in our front order?  Well the initial period seems promising as he is building towards a 100 run partnership with his captain as I write this.  At just over 5 an over with half the innings gone?  Well it's a start but we would expect it to be pushed on in the last 15 to 20 if we reach that 30 over mark with 8 wickets still remaining.  Then these two will have done their jobs and the likes of White, Hildreth and Parsons will be tasked with getting us over that 300 mark before leaving it to the bowlers to make up for Mayday. 139 in the 27th with Wood on a confidence building 88 off 92 and Arul supporting with 22. 

Matt was unlucky to be run out in sight of a century, looking much more like the batsman we know he is.  He misread a quick single and Arul sent him back but not quickly enough.  BUT importantly - our second wicket put on 100 runs!! Cameron White came out at number 4 and got into the match quickly helping Suppiah reach a well deserved 50 and keeping the score moving when his partner went C&B to Dernbach with 63 at 213.

The problem was that we were only going at about 5 and a bit an over and this was a belting pitch with a belting Surrey batting line-up slavering to get on it.  When Keith Parsons went cheaply trying to push the score on it started to get a bit nerve-wracking, especially when White went three short of a half century with Somerset just over 250.  James Hildreth and Wes Durston moved the score to 279 but the Surrey bowlers kept us in check and it looked about 20 - 30 runs short if they got off to a good start.

Have we sorted out our number 3 spot?  Well our Malaysian friend certainly looked the part today and must have given himself a real chance to start the home Championship game on Wednesday against Essex.  It is only one game but he looked like the batsman we saw last year and that is good enough for me personally.  I think he has to play in that position on the 10th.

So, the reply.  Charl Willoughby and, especially Richard Johnson had a lot to prove today.  RJ didn't look like he had an answer to the Gloucestershire onslaught last week and although we have no idea whether he was fully fit he needed a good start this afternoon with no Andy Caddick to pull the side out of the mire if it got itself in there. Having  Batty caught by White chasing one with only 5 on the scoreboard must have helped!! But we are looking at a line-up boasting Butcher, Ramprakash, Brown, Clarke, Mahmoud and even Salisbury (who has been a pain in our side more than once before).  One wicket wasn't going to do it.

Surrey started to move the score on as Butcher and Benning settled down to the task in hand and we laboured on a batting wicket with little movement in it.  The seamers were not making headway - but Benning was willing to give us helping hand, refusing to run for his captain or sacrifice his own wicket when he found Butcher had joined him at one end!! Obviously his 32 off 50+ balls was far more important than his skipper's 33 off less than 30.  Butcher run out at 57 and a chink of light for us.  Willoughby opened that chink a little wider with Benning's wicket at 80 but that just put Ramps and Ali at the crease and they can murder anyone.  Gareth Andrew wasn't making inroads as the change seamer so we turned to spin and brought on White but Ramprakash was unwilling to be tied down and kept at the bowling.

It was Suppiah who broke through when he had Brown caught behind at 145 before he had passed 50.  White then "double whammied" the Brownhats just after they passed 200 with Ramprakash's wicket at the start of the 41st and Mahmoud in the same over for 0.  Now we were in with a shout because the 69 required with 10 overs to go and 6 wickets remaining hadn't been shaved by a lot and they only had 4 men left.  However, Clarke was still there and he had been joined by Salisbury.

Now Arul really stepped in!  Clarke bowled at 230.  Salisbury bowled at 240.  Murtagh bowled at 251.  All this on a pitch with not a lot in it.  Dan Cullen only bowled 3 overs on it!!  It was effectively all over, even though there had been a bit of big hitting.  When Doshi finally committed suicide by trying for a fast single, it was comical to watch him waiting for the third umpires decision when a blind man in a dark box could have seen he was out by a mile and a half.  Even if he'd managed to fool everyone, it would have only allowed Arul the chance to get a fiver-fer.  As it was he wasn't and Mr Suppiah had to settle for his best figures of 4 for 39 (beating his previous best of 3 for 41 against..Surrey) and we had to accept a win by 26 runs.  Awesome!!

Well the good news? 

• Arul is in fine fettle and has to play on Wednesday as an asset with bat and ball. 
• Surrey are in deep brown stuff in the C&G
• Matt Wood looks good!
• White did well with bat and ball
• We pulled this excellent victory off without main players in key positions
• Woody had a mare of a day in the field (dropping Ramps and missing boundaries) but it didn't matter because the side supported each other well in all departments

All in all STONKING GOOD STUFF

Now let's go and get the Championship sorted out against the strongest opposition in that competition!

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon