Friday 10 June 2011

Rain ruins my evening, and Surrey's

Kevin Pietersen's Twenty20 debut ended in a no result, a point apiece for Surrey and Glamorgan. KP did find time to take a fine catch on the boundary rope at long on, but he didn't get a bat.

That the match ended the way it did, just after 9pm as the rain which briefly abated began to fall hard again, was a crying shame. Glamorgan set 167, a good target but not out of Surrey's reach, it would've been a great chase.

The Glamorgan innings was a funny mix. Glamorgan dispatched the first 10 overs for 88 runs and lost only Alviro Petersen, to the excellent Dirk Nannes for 13. Mark Cosgrove played some great shots but there were too many poor balls from Dernbach and Arafat, and Cosgrove and Jim Allenby dealt very well with the spinners - their four overs went for 37 combined.

However the introduction of Zander de Bruyn into the attack pulled things back for Surrey. He accounted for Cosgrove and two overs later he bowled Ben Wright. He was just wobbling it off the seam but it worked very well. Dernbach also bowled a good over for good measure, taking two wickets during a spell in which Glamorgan lost 4-34 in six overs.

Allenby and David Brown threatened to heave the total close to the 180 mark but the last eight or nine balls from Dernbach and Nannes were excellent.

The rain began to fall in the interval, there was briefly hope of getting some sort of game, even just a five over thrash, but it was not to be. There are some positives to be drawn from today, Nannes' bowling was superb, Dernbach came back well and de Bruyn did a good job as fourth seamer. Arafat had another game to forget, rarely threatening and his four overs disappeared for 41 runs, his return this season is 17 wickets from 12 games in all competitions at 49 apiece, where is the Arafat of old? His place in the game tomorrow surely has to go to Tim Linley.

Down to Gloucestershire tomorrow who look to have improved somewhat from their first couple of games, weather permitting it should be more of a test than the game at the Oval.

2 comments:

Tim V said...

I wondered what the D/L target for a five over bash would have been. Anyone have any idea?

GreenJJ said...

Morning Tim

Think I recall someone saying on Friday that it'd be 51 off 5 overs.

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