My first thought was to make Tremlett the player of the season, but Davies consisteny brilliance at the top of the order in the limited overs games, as well as the runs in the Championship made Davies an inevitable pick. These two will form the spine of our batting and bowling for years to come, hopefully, and they're more than good enough for Division One.
Batsman of the Season: Mark Ramprakash
No one else came close, especially in the Championship, but it was his runs in all competitions which continued to impress. Age doesn't seem to dampen his appetite for runs, and well into his fifth decade he'll still be churning out the runs in 2011.
Bowler of the Season: Chris Tremlett
I think I've written enough on Tremlett, he was so many miles ahead of the next best bowler at the club. His average was 10 better than the next best and his strike rate was 10 balls quicker than the rest. Add to that the fact that he was also our most parsimonious bowler in the Championship, giving away just 2.6 runs per over (next best leading bowler was Nel at 3 runs an over), and you can see why he was so far ahead of the rest.
Fielder of the Season: Matthew Spriegel
In a year that was otherwise one of stagnation for him, Spriegel held on to more catches per game than any other non-wicketkeeper at the club. He continues to impress as a safe pair of hands (although he did drop one off Kevin Pietersen’s bowling against Worcestershire), if he can just up his game in the other departments he'll be a very useful player indeed.
Innings of the Season: Jason Roy's 101 vs. Kent
Either of Mark Ramprakash's double hundreds, Hamilton-Brown's two run-a-ball hundreds plus his 115 in the CB40 were in the running for this, but the significance of Roy's hundred shouldn't be overlooked. No Surrey player had scored a T20 hundred in almost 8 years of that format and the manner of Roy's was quite spectacular. Five sixes and eleven fours, it came from just 57 balls. This young man will play for England, I have little doubt about that.
Bowling Spell of the Season: Tim Linley's 4-13 vs Derbyshire
This spell easily eclipsed his maiden five-for against Northants. After the opening bowlers had failed to remove the top order Linley game in and removed four of them in a spell of 10 overs, conceding just 13 runs in the process. Tremlett unquestionably bowled more fiery spells this season, but something about this spell from Linley really impressed me, and it was a key element of us winning that game.
Most improved: Gary Wilson
As I wrote in the batsmen review, Wilson improved out of sight this year. I am happy to admit I was completely wrong about him. He always looks composed at the crease, he looks like he knows what he's up to and the thing which impressed me most was his ability to pace his innings just right. I hope he continues his development and who knows, he could be the next Irishman to pull on an England shirt?
Opposition Player of the Season: Vikram Solanki
I wanted to make this one Moeen Ali, so a nod of the head in his direction as well, but Solanki, in a season where he didn't set the world alight, was very impressive against us in the couple of times I saw him. He's still a top class batsman and his hundred in the CB40 game at the Oval was one of the best innings I saw all year.
(Most Unexpected) Partnership of the Season: Ramprakash and Spriegel vs. Glamorgan in the CB40
143 runs off 83 balls. In a season where our limited overs batting was regularly incendiary this might not have been a surprise, but that it was Ramprakash (85) and Spriegel (56), rather than Hamilton-Brown and Davies was. This was in the game where we set the world record for a total in a 40 over game, inside just 38 overs. Given those extra two overs we probably would've breached 400 and Ramps would've bagged a hugely impressive hundred. I've not seen Spriegel bat quite like he did that day before (or since).
Best Game of the Season: Derbyshire at Chesterfield in the Championship
The aforementioned record breaking game might have been a more sensible choice but the Derbyshire game struck me as the most impressive achievement. In the format where we were our weakest the players in this game showed a massive amount of character. Linley was ruled out early in the game, Nel pulled a hamstring, Dernbach was already out injured...the list went on. The second innings dismissal of Derbyshire was done with only one fully fit bowler in Tremlett and Nel hobbling in on one leg. Add to that the fact that the game was slap bang in the middle of the Twenty20 tournament (nice one ECB schedulers). I think this is probably known as 'winning ugly', something we've barely done over the last three years (we haven't really won 'pretty' either!), we need more of it!
Worst Game of the Season: Essex T20
The Gloucestershire game a couple of days before this, or The Night of the Boos as it became known (by me) might seem a more logical pick, bowled out for 97 and then trampled on in under 10 overs. However the Essex game, for me, was even more devastating. We bowled pretty well to restrict them to 120-odd, a very gettable total on the Oval tracks, and then just completely capitulated for the second consecutive match. If the Gloucestershire game could be thought of as an anomaly, this game seemed to confirm quite how bad we were. In three years of really bad cricket from Surrey, I don't know if I've felt lower than I did that evening. Fortunately, and credit to the players and management, they got an awful lot better thereafter.
Disappointment of the season: The overseas contingent
What a shambles. The signing of Chawla, announced late in 2009, was a real boon, but a short lived one. He was coming off the back of an impressive late-season spell with Sussex, in the first division, where he'd taken 36 wickets at 27 and scored a maiden Championship hundred. In the second division, he'd surely have made hay. However thanks to the BCCI it wasn't to be. So instead we got Rao Iftikhar, Younus Khan and Andrew Symonds. On paper, not the worst signings in the world, but none of them worked out. I don't think you can blame Adams for the Symonds signing, he should've been better, but signing Younus for the Twenty20 was all wrong and Rao just never looked interested. Roll on 2011 and a proper overseas signing.
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2 comments:
Great piece. I've no idea how Ramprakash stays so hungry but he shows little signs of letting up. Very excited to see Tremlett in the England squad. I think he's been unlucky with England in the past.
I was at that Essex Twenty 20 game and it was dreadful. The weather was crap too.
Glad you liked it!
The weather certainly didn't help matters, there weren't many nice games from a weather point of view!
Ramps' hunger is one of the wonders of modern man, he's a complete legend. Really great for Tremlett too.
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