A third of a day, but a good third for Surrey

The expected rain showers restricted Surrey to bowling just 35 overs today, but in those 35 overs they had significant success in reducing Middlesex to 88-4 after sending them in to bat.

Funnily enough, 88-4 is the precise score we reduced Middlesex to at Lord's in April before John Simpson and Neil Dexter came to their rescue, I can only hope Chris Rogers and Jamie Dalrymple don't perform a similar reconstruction job.

Surrey fans know only too well how dangerous a player Chris Rogers can be given his performance at the Oval for Derbyshire last year, so no one will rest easy until he's gone. It was a shared effort as well, each of the four bowlers who turned their arm over - Dernbach, Meaker, Linley and Batty took a wicket and all were economical in doing so, the Middlesex run rate was just 2.5.

There was a surprise at the start of the day as Arun Harinath was named to play his first Championship game of the season despite not being named in the initial 12 man squad. Given the bowler-friendly conditions, Adams' decision to play the extra batsman is a good one and Harinath's good form for the Second XI means the selection is well deserved.

So should there be substantial play tomorrow Surrey are in a very good position to press home the advantage, and must not be guilty of letting a door they've forced ajar slam shut courtesy of one CJL Rogers.

They murdered us, they flippin' murdered us

To quote the irrepressible David Lloyd, Derbyshire flippin' murdered Surrey over the past four days. In the battle of the Star Batsmen Carrying His Side's Hopes, Chris Rogers comprehensively outscored Mark Ramprakash 340-102. Not to say that Ramps wasn't brilliant, he was, but Rogers was brilliant-er.

Of the two bowling attacks, only a fool would look at the scorecard and suggest that Surrey had done a half decent job. The collective average of Surrey's bowlers? 43. Derbyshire's run rate across their two innings? 3.7, compared with Surrey's 2.8. We were comprehensively outplayed here, and Rogers fully deserved to come away on the winning side after a virtuoso performance with the bat.

Five of Surrey's top seven were clean bowled. I saw a hint of uneven bounce in the pitch yesterday, and that may have played a part, but it doesn't look good. You have to credit the Derbyshire attack, they bowled sensible lines and lengths, the spinners stopped the flow of runs (largely) and the wickets duly followed.

Surrey's bowlers on the other hand were woeful. Meaker and Dernbach in particular failed to keep the run rate down to any degree. The only bowlers to keep the run rate below three in their overs were Afzaal and Spriegel, and they only bowled 24 overs between them out of a total of just under 200 overs (taking four wickets in the process - only one fewer than Meaker, Linley and Dernbach combined).

This might seem like an odd proposal, but I would be tempted to go with a four man attack for the Sussex game, and it simply has to include Rao Ifthikar and Chris Tremlett. The reason for this? Well our top six isn't good enough to be picking up 400+ regularly. Aside from Ramps, and to a lesser extent Davies, no one looks like they're about to hang around, and let's face it even if Brown comes back in, he's not exactly Dravid-esque in his crease occupation. So an extra batsman is required. There might even be a case for Walters after Spriegel and Harinath's less than convincing performance. And I'd wager that Rao and Tremlett offer more of a wicket taking threat than Linley, Meaker and Dernbach combined - at least on the strength of this performance they do. I'm sure Dernbach will come back stronger, probably in the limited overs stuff.

I would suggest a top six of Brown, Harinath, Ramps, Afzaal, Hamilton-Brown and Spriegel. Davies slots in at seven which is where I've always liked to have the WK-bat, Batty is a very capable number 8, likewise Nel at number 9, Tremlett is no Chris Martin (not the Coldplay one) with the bat and then Rao.

There's a temptation to go right into the doldrums here and write off another season, and believe me I'm struggling to fight that temptation. Several of our players need to stand up and be counted at Hove - Ramps and Davies cannot be expected to carry this side all season.

Wait...is it still 2009?

Another day at the Oval, another upsetting performance from Surrey. Ok, it wasn't dreadful - Ramps' 109th first class hundred was impressive and Batty played well for his 65, but really Chris Rogers showed us all what a pitch this is.

Rogers has now collected 299 runs to himself on a pitch where all Surrey's 11 men could only muster 352. Take nothing away from Rogers, he's a class act, but Surrey have been found wanting throughout in this game.

To be fair, Surrey did a decent job in making it to 352, Nel's lively 37 proving important, but when the sides emerged after the innings break - Derbyshire already 99 runs ahead, plenty of runs were there for the taking. Nel and Dernbach were confusingly only given three overs each before the woeful Meaker was given a go. I understand he bowled ok yesterday morning, but in his spell today there were at least two four-balls an over, it was nowhere near the standard we ought to expect of our players.

Rogers merrily tucked in, as well he might, and Derbyshire now sit 260 runs ahead and the prospect of Rogers biffing a few quickly after getting his hundred tomorrow morning could mean a tricky few sessions for Surrey's batsmen.

In other news, Rao Ifthikar Anjum has now apparently arrived, visa issues cleared up, and he'll be available for the game at Hove next week. If I was Stuart Meaker or Tim Linley I'd be looking at making alternative arrangements next weekend. Rao ought to slip in to the attack and if available, Tremlett should too. Eight bowlers have bowled for Surrey in this game, with very little success - here's hoping that next time out fewer have a bit more success.