Positive Surrey press on

Surrey go into the third day of the crucial tie with Essex 166 runs ahead with six second innings wickets still in hand. And guess what? The match is still in the balance.

It was another bravura performance from Tim Linley that dragged Surrey back ahead of the curve today. Essex's openers had put on 100 steady runs in 37 overs before Linley intervened and took four wickets inside ten overs. It was the eighth time this season that the Viscount had snared four or more victims in an innings.

Pragyan Ojha took the wicket of Wheater before Meaker cleaned up the Essex's lower and middle order to record his second consecutive 5-for in Championship cricket. Their first four wickets fell in the space of ten overs and the last five fell in almost exactly the same timeframe. It was only a rapid 56 from Ryan ten Doeschate which saved Essex from an even bigger first innings deficit.

As it was they were bowled out for 253, 62 runs behind. It would seem that Surrey had in mind the grim-looking weather forecast for Saturday throughout their second innings batting. Davies fell in only the third over but Hamilton-Brown, de Bruyn and Maynard all looked to score quickly. Hamilton-Brown was out for 23 off 31 balls, his eleventh score this season between 20 and 40. His role in these situations is to put pressure on the opposition bowling by scoring quickly but with Davies gone so early I thought he might have been a bit more circumspect.

De Bruyn and Maynard were motoring along at better than a run a ball in the evening session and Surrey were looking well set for a decent lead with time left to bowl Essex out. Maynard though was out LBW to Masters off what was the final ball of the day's play.

So Surrey have six wickets left and will want at least 270 runs on the board - with Roy, Batty, Jordan and Meaker still to come, that is possible. De Bruyn needs to stay in while others come in and score around him, the forecast for tomorrow is warm and humid - good conditions to bowl in. A draw in this game does us very little good and with rain likely on Saturday it might be win-or-bust at Chelmsford tomorrow.

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.

Magic Meaker inspires Surrey fightback

Stuart Meaker produced a spectacular spell of four wickets for six runs in seven deliveries just before tea on the second day to bowl Surrey into a great position.

At 174-3 with Andrew Hall and Rob Newton comfortable at the crease Surrey looked set to concede a first innings deficit before Meaker intervened and collect career best figures of 5-37. Tim Linley, as ever, chipped in with the final wicket after Pragyan Ojha had accounted for Chaminda Vaas. Only nine wickets were required as the injured Stephen Peters was unable to bat. With his side comfortable at one stage, Peters might have hoped he would not be needed today.

Meaker is one of those players who has a tendency to take wickets in bunches, much like Jade Dernbach in many respects, and when he is on song he complements Tim Linley perfectly. He now has 34 wickets at 21 apiece from just 8 games, and his strike rate of 35 is better than anyone in the division with 30 or more wickets. Impressive stuff.

That left Surrey with a first innings lead of 75, and importantly it deprived Northamptonshire of even a single batting point - that could well prove crucial in the final analysis. With two-and-a-bit days left in the game, Hamilton-Brown and Davies could set about steadily building on that lead. However the captain seemed to have other ideas as he raced to 22 off 21 balls before he was caught behind off Vaas.

Davies and Ramprakash then set about doing the steady job, a 75 run partnership had Surrey looking very comfortable indeed. Ramprakash though didn't make it to close, his score of 38 was his ninth score between 20 and 38 this year, and it was the 11th time he has been dismissed either LBW or bowled this season. Even the greatest are allowed blips in form, and I hope this is just that.

Linley was sent in as nightwatchman, a job he couldn't quite fulfill to the same standards he's set as leader of the attack as he was bowled by James Middlebrook for a duck. De Bruyn joined Davies and no further wickets fell.

That leaves Surrey with a lead just shy of 200 and fully two days left in the game. I expect Davies and de Bruyn will look to build steadily in the morning session and if they do so, Roy and Maynard will be able to come in and add plenty more to that if required. Any lead over 300 is probably going to be pretty tough to chase especially with Ojha wheeling away at one end.

Today Surrey showed a lot of character, at the time when we needed someone to step up and make an impact, Meaker did just that, and in fine style. Tomorrow I hope we can continue in that same vein and really put Northants under real pressure.

Make or break time

Surrey travel to Wantage Road tomorrow knowing that a win over top-of-the-table Northamptonshire will move them a big step closer to an unlikely promotion.

Chris Adams has named a 13 man squad including the 19 year old fast bowler George Edwards to take on the leaders, the squad and possible XI is as follows:

Hamilton-Brown
Davies
Ramprakash
De Bruyn
Maynard
Roy
Jordan
Batty
Meaker
Linley
Ojha

12th men: Ansari, Edwards

As much as I want to see Zafar Ansari play as much first team cricket as possible I think it is unlikely that Adams will go into a four day game with only two frontline seam bowling options. That means an unlikely reprieve for Jordan who despite bowling well against Leicestershire returned nothing in the wickets column in that game and his line and length in the CB40 game yesterday was woeful.

Adams could yet spring a surprise though, especially in light of de Bruyn's increased bowling workload lately, and play Ansari as the third spinner. Personally I think that would be the better option. In two fewer games than Jordan this year Ansari has taken one more wicket and has been significantly less expensive in doing so. I hope Meaker is given a chance to recapture his best form and isn't restricted to cameo spells as third change bowler. He hasn't been right on the money since his injury early in the season but he still has 29 wickets to his name from just 7 matches. On his day he is devastating, and that day will come around again soon. Ojha should continue the good work that saw him pick up four wickets for 48 runs in the last match.

Again the shortage of genuine batting options means the top six pick themselves and after Davies got his hundred last week, Hamilton-Brown will be looking to follow suit. There is still no definitive word on whether Ramprakash will play on next season but just to be on the safe side I'd like a hundred from him. Tom Maynard, who has only passed 30 once in his last 11 visits to the crease, could also do with some big runs.

We seem to have played Northants an awful lot over the last couple of seasons and our last two visits to Wantage Road have seen us come back with two wins. However this season they are a much tougher prospect than in the past and they've only lost one match all season. Whilst they've had no standout batsman they do have six men with over 500 Championship runs under their belt, and 11 hundreds all told. They also have four bowlers with over 30 Championship wickets for good measure too. 200 points on the board with two games still to play doesn't happen by accident but we are capable of beating them, and having had them 163-7 at the Oval in April we should already have done so once this season.

A win would shrink the current 41 point gap to Northants to something around 20 points with a game in hand. With Middlesex in almost as dominant position as is possible against Leicestershire it looks increasingly like it will have to be Northants that we overhaul if we are to win promotion. Anything other than a win would more or less seal promotion for the two sides above us. No pressure then.

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.

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.

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!