By Jonathan Winsky
June 18 2016

Jonathan Winsky gives a detailed report on how this defeat panned out and his experiences before and after the game.  

After making the journey from Rickmansworth, I arrived at my seat at just before the scheduled start of 6:30pm. A few minutes prior to that, someone asked me at the turnstile where the ticket office is, perhaps because I was wearing my hi-viz jacket from work. I would have preferred to have kept the jacket in my bag, but I thought that wearing it when entering the ground would be the lesser of two evils, as it would make it easier for those who searched my bag. I assume the person who asked the location of the ticket office was successful in finding it, although I don’t know if he would have been successful in getting a ticket, as apparently the match had sold-out.

I arrived to find the players warming up, which suggested that the start would be delayed. I was surprised at the delay, as I wasn’t aware of any rain, so it must have been localised or have fallen while I was underground. The forecast had looked bleak for a few days, but it suddenly improved in the morning. It was announced a couple of minutes after I arrived that the toss would not take place until 6:40pm, with a full 20-over match beginning at 7:10pm. At least it gave me time to settle as opposed to the match starting before I was ready. Dawid Malan called correctly and decided that Middlesex should bowl. Ollie Rayner replaced Nathan Sowter from the XI which was named for the previous night’s match v Sussex at Lord’s, perhaps in the hope that Rayner could repeat his performances in County Championship matches at The Oval in 2013 and 2016.

As Surrey didn’t hit a boundary until the penultimate ball of the second over, I thought that maybe it would be a low-scoring match. However, the following over saw Jason Roy hit Steven Finn for a six followed by two fours to take the score to 33-0 after three overs. Thankfully, the first wicket fell in the fourth over, when Roy was caught by Rayner off Mitch McClenaghan, having scored 35 out of 39. They ended the Powerplay on 57-1.

When Rayner was introduced into the attack, it took just three balls for him to strike, as Steven Davies was caught by Nick Gubbins for 14. This brought in Rory Burns, although two balls later he was run out for a diamond duck (a term for being dismissed without facing a ball) after a great throw from Toby Roland-Jones to Rayner, who broke the stumps. He didn’t look out with the naked eye, but replays showed he was out. Replays of third umpire decisions did not used to be shown on the big screen while they were being shown to TV viewers, but the fact they now are makes it a welcome addition to the matchday experience.

The wickets slowed the run rate down, as only 28 runs and one boundary was scored in the following 4.2 overs before Kumar Sangakkara came down the wicket to Rayner, who had switched to the Vauxhall End, and was stumped by John Simpson. This brought in DJ Bravo, who walked in to sound of the Champion song which he prophetically recorded before recently becoming a two-time World Twenty20 champion with West Indies.

Finn returned for the 13th over, and with his first ball back, caused Ben Foakes to be caught by Eoin Morgan. A lot of people dream of an England side featuring Foakes, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, but an innings of 9 off 12 may not be enough to achieve that. In the next over, Rayner had Bravo caught by Finn in the deep, which was becoming a common mode of dismissal in this innings, and it gave Rayner final figures of 3-23.

McClenaghan returned for the 17th over, and after the over started with a no-ball hit for four and a free-hit which met the same fate, he had Sam Curran caught by Malan. However, he bowled three wides to make it a 10-ball over which went for 20 to get me fearful about our over rate. During the following over in which James Fuller conceded just six to finish with figures of 0-23, I saw Malan moving his shoulders, so I wondered whether he would bring himself on in an effort to avoid us conceding penalty runs, and he indeed did so. As Malan can sometimes be a useful bowler, I thought that maybe it could be a blessing in disguise that circumstances meant he felt the need to bowl the penultimate over, but it instead went for 19. Not for this first time, a requirement to bowl spin to help our over rate let the opposition off the hook. I was too busy writing about all this to have paid attention at the time to whether we were successful in avoiding a penalty, and I was surprised to come home to find that were actually successful, as the clock on the big screen wound down to zero while the 19th over was still in progress. Lower Mound told me when I got home that the Sky commentators said the clock was a couple of minutes fast (although another explanation could be that it didn’t take into account some allowances made), so perhaps Malan didn’t need to bowl after all, in which case TRJ or James Franklin could have bowled it instead. McClenaghan bowled the final over which went for 11, and Surrey finished on 173-7. 56 came off the final fours over, which was a disappointment considering that prior to that, none of the overs since the Powerplay had gone for more than 8.

Our reply start well, with Brendon McCullum hitting the first ball of the innings for four and the first ball of the second over for a big six. He and Malan put on 29 in 3.3 overs for the first wicket before McCullum was bowled by Ravi Rampaul. Just 5 were score off the next over, and to make matters worse, Malan was caught by Bravo off Sam Curran. Bravo then entered the attack, again to the sound of his song.

We ended the Powerplay on 38-2, so were 19 behind Surrey at this stage, and the fact Eoin Morgan was caught by Burns off Gareth Batty meant our chances seemed to be slipping away, especially with our rate required passing 10.00. The fourth wicket fell when Simmo attempted to hit a second successive six off Batty, but picked out Burns.

I was surprised when TRJ came in, as I was already too doubtful we could win to see there being much point in bringing in a pinch-hitter, plus I thought that Fuller would fulfil that role. As I was writing that, Gubbins somehow chopped onto his stumps off Zafar Ansari’s first ball. TRJ’s innings saw him score 16 off 10 before falling lbw to Ansari, which meant we had 8.1 overs and four wickets left to more than double our score of 81.

Franklin and Rayner put on 43 for the seventh wicket, although it wasn’t enough to prevent the rate required getting out of control. I imagine we were more concerned about ensuring that our result wasn’t too damaging to our net run rate. Once the partnership came to an end, it was inevitable Surrey would win. The match ended with Finn became the second player of the night to fall for a diamond duck, run out by Sam Curran.

Usually when I attend this fixture, I like to sit in the alcohol-free area, as I prefer not to be amongst people unfocused on the cricket and who are regularly going back and forth to the bar. However, I couldn’t find such an area when booking my ticket, as I think Surrey had decided to introduce a family-area in the refurbished Peter May stand in which alcohol consumption was not prohibited but was monitored by stewards. I decided to buy a ticket for that stand high up, although I don’t think I was actually in the family area. I was hopeful my experience would be better than when I last sat in that stand for this fixture in 2010. Thankfully, my experience and view of the match was fairly good, although perhaps I got lucky, as I saw a few Tweets after the match saying the experience wasn’t pleasant due to several people being drunk. Incidentally, the new Peter May stand didn’t seem much different to the old one, apart from maybe the stand being steeper and there being facilities underneath.