Surrey on top but Derbyshire resist

Division One cricket looms larger and larger on the horizon as Surrey ground down a determined Derbyshire side today, 13 opposition wickets stand between us and victory.

Stuart Meaker and Tim Linley started the day in rather more sedate fashion than expected and they accumulated rather than biffed their way to a 73 run partnership. Meaker was left on 55 not out to underline his impressive return to form with the bat as Surrey were all out for 468.

That score looked even more impressive as Derbyshire, with 35 minutes to bat until lunch, were reduced to 17-3 before the break. Linley, as is customary now, made the breakthrough having Lineker caught at slip off just the third ball of the innings (Stuart Meaker was again denied the new ball, needless to say, I can only assume it's his preference as well as the captain's!). Linley had a second victim when he caught and bowled Wayne Madsen while Pragyan Ojha picked up the bonus wicket of Wes Durston with the third ball of his first over just before lunch.

Tim Linley had a third victim, Dan Redfern not long after lunch and Stuart Meaker then chimed in with the wicket of Rob Whiteley. There then followed a dogged recovery from opener Paul Borrington and captain Luke Sutton who put together a steady 90 run partnership. They looked like getting to the close without further loss but Chris Jordan, who had bowled just three overs in opening the bowling, returned to collect the crucial wicket of Sutton and expose the Derbyshire tail. Jon Clare provided some fireworks in his 21 from 22 balls before falling LBW to Ojha just before the close.

That left Derbyshire still 141 runs short of the follow-on target with only three wickets remaining. The spinners were getting good turn and importantly sharp bounce so batting is unlikely to get easier. If the last three wickets fall without too much resistance the follow-on will surely be immediately enforced.

The weather forecast is very sunny for tomorrow, meaning the interruption we had today is unlikely. There is plenty of time yet for Surrey to force the issue, and force our way into Division One. Northamptonshire had an impressive day but they may still live to rue not collecting their fourth and fifth batting points on day one. They dismissed Gloucestershire for 183 and have them 84-5 following on, David Willey taking eight wickets in the day. However the points situation is such that if we are able to overcome Derbyshire, we will be promoted ahead of them.

Tim Groenewald and Paul Borrington are likely to put up a good fight with the bat but once one of them falls Knight and Footitt shouldn't be allowed to add much more to the score. A first innings lead of 250 is not out of the question and Derbyshire could be batting a second time before lunch on the third day.

And yet we are still only half way through the game. I've seen too many Surrey games to call this one a foregone conclusion, but on the back of three and a half of the most impressive Championship performances in at least four seasons, I wouldn't bet against us wrapping it up tomorrow. One more big push, one more massive effort and what seemed so unlikely just four weeks ago will be within their grasp.

Five wickets from glory

Surrey will have to dodge the Chelmsford showers to claim the final five wickets that they need for a remarkable third consecutive win, and to move within one point of second placed Northamptonshire.

The forecast has light rain showers throughout the day which could scupper the push, but hopefully there will be enough time to force the issue.

Yesterday Surrey added 186 to their overnight 104-4 despite losing Jason Roy and Gareth Batty early in the day. Zander de Bruyn progressed to his fourth Championship hundred of a magnificent season and Chris Jordan bettered his highest first class score for the second time in three days with an attacking 79 not out.

That left Essex needing 349 runs to win and again they got off to a sedate start but there was no hundred partnership for the openers this time. Tim Linley bowled Tom Westley in the 11th over and Owais Shah four overs later, he is now just a single wicket from recording 70 victims this season. Pragyan Ojha then got into his stride and took the wickets of Mickleburgh and Wheater before Linley returned to have Godleman caught behind.

So weather permitting Essex require another 207 runs, and with ten Doeschate, Foster and Napier still to come that isn't impossible and Surrey require five wickets. Fingers crossed the weather holds off and the charge for promotion continues.

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.

Northants take the spoils on day one

Northamptonshire will start day two with all 10 wickets still intact and a mediocre Surrey total of 269 firmly in their sights. We'll have to bowl extremely well tomorrow to have any hope of a win in this match.

And bowl extremely well is exactly what Northants did today, none of their bowlers gave away more than 3.3 runs an over and it was disciplined bowling that did for Surrey. Steven Davies continued his good form with 81 and Zander de Bruyn pitched in with 58, he's only failed to pass 50 in four of his 14 Championship matches this season. But those two aside, there was little from Surrey's batsmen.

Davies and Ramprakash settled in before lunch to build the only 50 partnership of the innings but Ramps' dismissal after the break precipitated a disappointing collapse. In the end the final nine wickets fell for 165 runs with only de Bruyn's contribution standing out, word is that the pitch isn't up to any tricks either.

Chaminda Vaas ended the innings with 4-57 to give him 65 wickets in what has been an outstanding season. Andrew Hall, James Middlebrook and Dave Burton shared the other six wickets between them. Rob Newton and Kyle Coetzer saw out the final five overs of the day, delivered by Linley and Jordan, Linley extracting seamingly endless inside edges in the process.

Northants will be very pleased with their day's work and they are definitely making the running. However we're by no means out of the game and can learn from Northants' example that all it takes is a disciplined line and length to get wickets (when has that ever not been the case?). Such is his form that Tim Linley will doubtless be in the wickets but he could do with some back up from Meaker and Jordan, both short of form.

If we can restrict them to a small-ish total Pragyan Ojha ought to make batting last a tricky prospect - but there's a long way to go until that's a factor. Tomorrow we need to show a lot of guts under plenty of pressure, or we're kissing any lingering promotion hopes goodbye.

Three day win at Grace Road

Surrey capped off an impressive all round performance by wrapping up a 10 wicket win inside three days at Grace Road this evening, keeping the flicker of hope that promotion is still possible just barely alive.

Rory Hamilton-Brown took his season's tally to 943 runs (seventh in division two) at an average of 41, and a strike rate of 80. His talent is unquestionable, though it is equally unquestionable that he is far from the finished article. He and Davies knocked off the 111 runs required in just 16 overs - and a good thing they did too because the forecast for tomorrow might have made a result very difficult.

The win was set up thanks to another sterling performance from the man making the running in the player of the season stakes, Tim Linley. His career-best haul of 6-57 took him to 59 wickets at 18 apiece and he has now taken at least one wicket in each of the last 17 innings he's bowled. To say he's been the backbone of the bowling attack is an enormous understatement. Ojha took another two wickets to end with 4-48 in the match and Gareth Batty also collected two. Chris Jordan toiled through 22 more overs for no wicket, his five wickets in four games this season have only arrived once every 19 overs and at a cost of 74 runs each.

As the ever vigilant Marcus Hook points out on Twitter, Surrey's last seven results read WLWLWLW - we always knew consistency would be an issue this year! This is though, the first time we've recorded five Championship wins in a season since 2007, progress that might not be startling, but it's progress nonetheless.

Given the decidedly grim-looking forecast for Northampton tomorrow their game with Middlesex looks to be heading for a draw. That will leave Middlesex on 183 points and Northants on 201 - with us back on 160 points and a game in hand over Northants. And to add a little extra spice, we're playing Northants next week. If we beat them we would be on a real roll and who knows where it might take us. This could be the making of Hamilton-Brown as captain, not to mention a real test of the mettle of the rest of the side. It's still the longest of long shots, and weather might yet play a part, but what's the sense in giving up hope?

This game was a comprehensive three-day dismantling, albeit of a side who have comfortably the worst record in the division. However, they say winning is a habit, and maybe we can get into that habit for the final month of the season. Well played.

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.

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.