Cricket is back - 2012's first squad named

Chris Adams has appropriately named a 12 man squad to kick off the 2012 pre-season schedule with a two day game against Essex at Chelmsford. Shorn of a few regulars including Mark Ramprakash and Gareth Batty who are due to jet off soon to Abu Dhabi for the MCC game, and Gary Wilson who is away with Ireland, there's plenty of room for some youngsters to make an impression ahead of the first Championship game. Jacques Rudolph remains with South Africa until the the third test in Wellington ends around the 27th.

The following 12 players have been named:

Rory Hamilton-Brown
Tom Lancefield
Arun Harinath
Matthew Spriegel
Tom Maynard
Jason Roy
Rory Burns
Jon Lewis
Stuart Meaker
Tim Linley
Jade Dernbach
George Edwards

I would guess Chris Adams has eight names already pencilled onto the teamsheet to face Sussex on the 5th of April. The top five of Hamilton-Brown, Rudolph, Ramprakash, de Bruyn and Maynard are almost certain to start, and barring a spectacular pre-season Rory Burns will probably make way for Gary Wilson when he returns (Steven Davies is away with England). Jade Dernbach is very likely to make the cut, so too Tim Linley who should be given a fair crack of the whip at the top level having had such an outstanding 2011.

That leaves three spare spots, with Gareth Batty, Stuart Meaker, Chris Jordan, Jon Lewis and Jason Roy all in with a very loud shout. Again, this is of course barring a stellar performance from one or all of Harinath, Spriegel, Lancefield or Edwards - but to leapfrog any of the previous five the performance will really have to be special to make it into the Championship first XI.

So Chris Adams has a tough job on his hands. With Batty and Jordan absent for now, Meaker, Lewis and Roy are in the box seats to challenge in this first pre-season game. Much may depend on the conditions at the Oval for the Sussex game, but I would be very surprised if Adams went into that game without a spinner, which makes Gareth Batty a very strong favourite to bag one of the three spots on offer despite not being present for all of pre-season.

So now we're down to two spare spots. Adams ended last season with Jason Roy at number six and Chris Jordan at number eight, but I think they'll probably be fighting over one spot. Roy or Jordan is a very tough call and Jordan's form in the Caribbean where he's taken 10 wickets in his last two games for Barbados may give him the edge. For what it's worth I'd go with Roy and have de Bruyn bowl some fill-in overs. He might not have nailed down beyond all doubt his place in the Championship first XI last season, but his talent is beyond question. What better way for him to improve his innings-building skills than against Division One attacks?

The final spot then could come down to a straight choice between Lewis and Meaker, the young tyro and the gnarled old pro (sorry Jon). Meaker is the man in possession having ended last season strongly with fifteen wickets in the last three matches, but he has had a spot of back trouble recently and Adams may be wary of throwing him straight in. If Meaker makes it through a few testing pre-season bowling spells I think Adams will go with him, and sign of an injury and Lewis will be straight in.

A few side-shows then to the pre-season games. The battle for first team spots and a great opportunity for a few of our younger players to stake a claim for first team cricket. I'm just happy to have domestic cricket back in my life, I've missed you old buddy!

Lower middle order rescue day for Surrey

Surrey had an up and down day in Chelmsford as the top order collapsed but the lower order stood up, by the close of play the match was finely balanced.

Sent in to bat by Essex skipper James Foster the openers didn't last long, Steven Davies was sent back to the pavilion in the 8th over. The rest of the batting was largely gone when Jason Roy was sixth man out with only 148 runs on the board. The pitch was offering plenty to the bowlers and the cloudy conditions over Chelmsford helped them too. Surrey's 2011 nemesis Graham Napier was the destroyer-in-chief, not content with equalling the world record for most sixes in an innings during his spectacular 196 at Whitgift, he ended the day with career best figures of 6-53.

Only Roy and Hamilton-Brown (who became the second Surrey batsman to pass 1,000 Championship runs this summer during his innings) of the batsmen were able to post any kind of score, with 43 and 31 respectively, scored at a very healthy rate. But the hard graft was done by batsmen seven, eight and nine today. First Gareth Batty, who forged a 54 run partnership with Roy and in doing so himself passed 500 runs for the season, and then Chris Jordan and Stuart Meaker rescued Surrey's innings towards a competitive total. It is interesting to note that the more 'accomplished' batsmen of the top order perished looking to attack the ball - 55% of their runs were scored in boundaries, where the lower-middle order were more circumspect - only 40% of their runs were scored in 4s and 6s.

Special praise should be reserved for Jordan who's had a very lean run with the bat. Without his 71 runs we would be in a far weaker position. It was a career-high score and I hope it spurs him on to greater feats with the ball.

Essex had two overs to bat out at the end of the day. I'd have thought Hamilton-Brown would've wanted their openers, who between them have mustered 96 runs in their last eight innings, to face the in-form Stuart Meaker for one of those overs. Alas no, the new ball was again thrown to Zander de Bruyn to partner Tim Linley. Essex made it safely to the end of the day with no damage done and six runs on the board.

Despite the failure, for the most part, of the top order Surrey are still in a fairly strong position. The forecast for tomorrow is cloudy all day and to have posted 315 on a green pitch is not to be sniffed at. Tim Linley should be a handful and so too Meaker when the skipper finally tosses him the ball (in Hamilton-Brown's defence de Bruyn will probably enjoy the pitch and conditions). Our bowling attack should be a danger throughout tomorrow.

We may have missed out on two bonus batting points, but the 16 points for victory is what really matters in this game, and a bundle of wickets tomorrow morning would go a long way to securing that.

Surrey still on top thanks to Davies hundred

Bad light forced an end to the day at Grace Road but Surrey, who had toppled two Leicestershire wickets for 66 runs by the time the umpires called time, are still in the ascendancy.

De Bruyn didn't last long this morning but Steven Davies, who remarkably has recorded scores in the 90s in every format this season without hitting a hundred, got the monkey off his back in this game - and what a good time to score it. He went on to score 121 off 218 balls to provide the backbone for Surrey's eventual total of 343. 40s from Jason Roy and Gareth Batty were the only other substantial contributions.

Again Stuart Meaker was held back from the new ball as Tim Linley and Chris Jordan performed opening bowling duties to kick off Leicestershire's second innings. I'm not sure what the rationale behind holding Meaker back is but I'd have thought exposing a Leicestershire lineup against whom he's taken 13 wickets to him as early as possible would've been better.

It was Linley again who made the first breakthrough as he had Matthew Boyce caught behind but Jefferson and Greg Smith made steady progress in a 46 run partnership in between breaks for bad light. Jordan bowled 8 overs for 19 runs without success - although he did have Jefferson caught at slip off a no ball (his eleventh of the season - Linley has bowled six no balls in about 300 more overs this year for comparison!). Three overs before the close Gareth Batty had Smith caught behind and nightwatchman Nathan Buck helped his side through to the end of the day.

Still 110 runs in arrears, but with 8 wickets left in hand, Leicestershire are down but not out just yet. I'd like to see Meaker bowl alongside Ojha tomorrow morning (or whenever rain allows them to get play started) as an early breakthrough or two might start Leicestershire sliding. With Middlesex in a mighty strong position against Northants it might not matter all that much, but with the door open for a victory Surrey must force the issue.

Arise Sir Christopher of Tremlettshire

Figures of 4-35 confirmed that Chris Tremlett, if he stays fit, will be a potent force for Surrey this season.  Only Franklin, Snell and surprisingly Banerjee offered any resistance for Gloucestershire and I'm told that Tremlett bowled with real pace and aggression to register his first wickets for the club.

Rao also picked up a couple but was still a bit expensive, Meaker picked up a solitary wicket but was economical, Dernbach didn't register in the wickets column but similarly didn't leak too many runs.

But the real interest came when Surrey came out to bat the final half hour of the day, with six bowlers named in the side I was expecting to see RHB at the sharp end, but lo and behold Gareth Batty came out to partner Arun Harinath to the end of the day.  Unfortunately he fell before the close, but by then he'd already put on 50 with the youngster and the experiment had gone quite well!  Don't think it'll last though....

Tomorrow Surrey need to come out fighting, the weather looks less overcast than today so slightly better for batting.  We need to post a huge total, and given the size of our tail, Harinath, Ramps, Afzaal, RHB and Davies are going to have to add the bulk of the runs - they're more than good enough to do so and some lusty lower order blows from Meaker and Schofield can take us to a formidable total.

Today's play has continued the turnaround since the dreadful performance at Hove and I firmly believe tomorrow Surrey can continue that, come on lads!