Thursday 21 July 2011

Another let off

At the halfway point of the match, such is the degree of rain interference that only one 86 over innings has been completed, and Surrey won't be overly impressed with their performance today.

Although the recovery wasn't quite as stark as Middlesex's at Lord's, it was still a substantial achievement. From 88-4 we should have been looking at dismissing the opposition for 250 at the very most, but first Dalyrmple and Rogers to post a century partnership before Zander de Bruyn stepped in to dismiss the Australian on 59.

Then the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth wicket partnership cobbled together 85 runs but most criminal of all Dalrymple was allowed to accelerate to his hundred in partnership with number 11 batsman Corey Collymore. Together they put on 71 runs in just 10 overs. I think it was a bad move to keep Batty and de Bruyn bowling for as long as they did, it may have only been four or five overs, but to my mind the man to remove tail end batsmen on the evidence of this season is Stuart Meaker. In the end it was Linley who ended the innings with his 35th wicket of the season.

Jamie Dalrymple does seem to like batting against us, in 2004 he scored 244 at the Oval, still his highest first class score to date. Whilst today wasn't our finest few hours Tim Linley again proved himself our most reliable performer with the ball while Batty and de Bruyn were able deputies.

The forecast for tomorrow and Saturday is a distinct improvement on the last couple of days, so a result is not completely out of the question though it will require some attacking batting and an enterprising declaration or two. The focus will be on bagging as many batting bonus points as possible though as the draw remains hot favourite.

2 comments:

Tim V said...

I got to the ground at 4 o'clock, saw 2 balls, 1 wicket and that was it!

The sun is shining in Guildford this morning so hopefully we can build a goood first innings lead and put them under pressure tomorrow. I dont see them doing us any favours when it comes to a declaration.

GreenJJ said...

Morning Tim. That's such a pain, still, at least you got to see a wicket!

It's a glorious day in North London and the forecast looked good south of London too, so like you say good conditions for batting (or better than yesterday at any rate). Probably wishful thinking on my part that we might get a generous declaration, but you never know!

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