Surrey named Gary Wilson in place of Zafar Ansari and Jacques Rudolph came in as Tom Maynard was withdrawn for family reasons. It's always sad to see a player's name off the team sheet in those circumstances and I hope Tom is back in no time.
The threat of rain didn't really recede throughout the day and after winning the toss the Scotland captain, Gordon Drummond, asked Surrey to have a bat. Rory Hamilton-Brown fell LBW to Parker in the second over and thereafter wickets fell at regular intervals, never did a partnership last for longer than 11 overs or bring more than 50 runs.
One man who did supply more than 50 runs though was Rudolph whose gritty 69 from 89 balls with just a solitary four exemplified the slow nature of the pitch. Rudolph's first 50 for Surrey came at just the right time, no one else in the innings passed 22. It was hard for batsmen to get in and time the ball sweetly. Some lower-order biffing from Lewis and Batty dragged the total to 187. Scotland's target was reduced slightly to 183 as two overs were lost to rain.
Gone are the days that Stuart Meaker and Jade Dernbach couldn't be trusted with the new ball and defending a small total. They both bowled well but their first victim didn't come until the sixth over, Dernbach having Macleod caught behind looking to run the ball to third man.
Having ridden out a good early period Scotland then subsided to a stifling spell of 3-21 from ten Jon Lewis and Matthew Spriegel overs, Davey, Symes and Watts all succumbed thanks to accurate and persistent bowling. Gareth Batty also chipped in as he caught Mommsen off his own bowling. Scotland were 66-5 and teetering on the edge.
Then came the resurgence. Richie Berrington, who has recently agreed a loan deal with Leicestershire and Majid Haq put on a rapid 50 partnership in just nine overs to give Scotland hope. However as the rain started to fall again Gareth Batty's golden arm did the trick again as Haq lofted the ball to Hamilton-Brown. It was an exceptionally well timed contribution from Batty as the Duckworth-Lewis par score shot up and off the players went with rain and hail coming down.
The players didn't emerge again and Surrey recorded a second successive CB40 win by 21 runs. A perfect start to the 2012 competition, as in 2011, and long may it continue.
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5 comments:
Thanks for sharing innovative post about Cricket, keep it up.
Good afternoon everyone, I must apologise as my tardiness means this is my first post of the year!
Thanks for the detailed post - interesting stuff as ever. When you say that Haq's wicket was timely I assume we were still slightly ahead under D/L at that point?
Afternoon Tim!
We were indeed, I think 10 or so runs ahead, so a couple of lusty blows and we could've been toast. Fortunately though he got himself out and the rain came down very quickly so it was comfortable in the end.
A good pothole to have avoided, particularly seeing Notts fell down one this afternoon ! Good all round performance. Great to see Spriegel bowling well.
Hope Maynard is back soon.
MKM
Exactly, it can be a bit of a lottery up there, especially with the weather. Always enjoy it when Spriegel bowls well, he's got nice loop, not that I saw it, but it sounded like he was tossing it up a fair bit. We need Maynard back so I hope his issues are not too troubling for him. It'll be interesting to see where KP fits in!
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