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.

Rain the likely winner for Guildford

It's July, there's vital cricket to be played, so obviously the forecast for the next four days is dire. If by some minor miracle there is the chance to force a result, this is a crucial game for Surrey against Middlesex who lie second in the table.

The last time a result was managed at Guildford was a crushing 10 wicket win for Durham back in 2008, in both 2009 and 2010 the weather played a significant part in two draws. The squad and the XI expected is as follows:

Hamilton-Brown
Roy
Ramprakash
De Bruyn
Davies
Maynard
Ansari
Batty
Meaker
Linley
Dernbach

12th man: Arafat

Given Linley's superb seven wicket performance against Kent he has to play, Meaker has shown good form in the longer format too and Dernbach is a certainty. Arafat's form in the Twenty20s was patchy at best and his omission from the Kent four day game 10 days or so ago does not bode well for him. You can't help but wonder when the Arafat of old is going to appear, but it won't be long before we all rule out the chance of that happening. That Ansari's selection barely merits a mention speaks volumes of his meteoric rise, but should a very green wicket appear at Guildford, Arafat could yet be shoehorned into the side.

The middle of the Division Two table is so tight, with six teams within seven points of one another, that a win would take us right into the mix for the promotion spots. Not that a win is by any means likely, Middlesex have had a Championship season in stark contrast to their disastrous Twenty20 campaign - they've won half of their games so far. Steven Finn being left out of the England squad is bad news for us because he will slot straight into the Middlesex XI. He'll be joined by Collymore and Murtagh to make a very dangerous seam attack. Their batting has been less impressive of late, but we know only too well that Chris Rogers can anchor any side to a big total.

Instinctively I think we are a better balanced Championship side, Ansari is perhaps a place too high in the order at seven but Batty is a handy insurance policy at number eight. The top six will hopefully have had time to get the rash Twenty20 shots out of their system and our seam attack is in good shape at the moment. We're certainly not giving away much to Middlesex on paper, if anything at all.

The players would do well to forget the events of Thursday-Sunday and draw on the confidence the win last week against Kent will have given them. If a result isn't possible because of the weather we should be looking to pick up whatever bonus points we can, attacking cricket will be the order of the day.

Stiff CB40 challenge at Durham

With a 100% record in the CB40 this season Surrey ought to have some reserves of confidence to call on, but recovering from the psychological blow of the two consecutive defeats sending us out of the Twenty20 will be a challenge.

The game tomorrow against Durham, weather permitting, represents the biggest challenge in the CB40 so far this season. Two wins apiece against Hampshire and Scotland, plus one against Leicestershire is nothing to be sniffed at, but between them those three teams have just two wins thus far in 2011. Northants, Durham and Warwickshire, all of whom we still have to play twice, have much better records.

Adams is persisting with his selection policy which (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) I maintain is a batsman light, but in any case the squad and expected team is as follows:

Hamilton-Brown
Davies
Roy
De Bruyn
Maynard
Schofield
Ansari
Batty
Arafat
Linley
Dernbach

Bench: Meaker, Wilson

Given that there are only really five batsmen in the squad who have displayed any kind of form of late, the top order picks itself. If Adams was unwilling to pick Wilson for either of the final Twenty20s it seems unlikely that he'll throw him in on Sunday. The Second XI hiatus has come at the wrong time for getting reserve batsmen into form.

With a Championship match coming hot on the heels of this game, and after he took some punishment on Thursday and Friday, it might be a good idea to give Meaker a rest though that would give yet another (undeserved) reprieve for Yasir Arafat. The one thing in his favour is that his CB40 performances have easily been his best for us this year. Tim Linley certainly deserves a game given his recent form. I'm particularly surprised that Matt Spriegel has not even been named in the squad given his good form in the CB40s this year.

Durham are a very good side, Onions, Borthwick, Plunkett and of course Paul Collingwood present a challenge to the batsmen, and in Benkenstein, Muchall, Coetzer and Mustard are capable of destructive feats. We're fortunate that Ben Stokes is still unavailable through injury.

The pressure is on Adams now to deliver some kind of progress after the failure of the Twenty20s, and this competition is the one in which we are best placed. If we bat first and get a good start, we're definitely contenders, but I don't fancy us chasing anything substantial. A win against a good Durham side tomorrow will restore some of the side's belief and gives a good platform to go into the second half of group matches.

Felled at the final hurdle again

This time last week it all looked so rosy, we'd just trounced Hampshire and needed just two points from our final two games to qualify for the quarter-finals. We didn't do it and the Twenty20 kit goes back in the locker for another year.

The game tonight was remarkably, nay depressingly, similar to last night. Hamilton-Brown lost two crucial tosses in 24 hours and in truth we were well beaten in both games.

Sussex were in deep trouble after two overs, the score was 13-2 and their momentum had stalled. The next four overs saw a clinical display from Murray Goodwin in particular and the pressure was well and truly released. Goodwin went on to score an unbeaten hundred from only 59 balls, he was particularly harsh on Meaker, de Bruyn and Schofield who between them bowled four overs for 57 runs. In truth we have bowled and fielded poorly in two crucial games, the pressure got to us, by and large.

The opposition again looked set for a score north of 200 tonight but Nannes and Dernbach brought us back from the brink, conceding just 11 from the final two overs to keep Sussex just below the 180 mark.

Chasing two fewer runs than against Kent last night, Jason Roy got us off to another blazing start but once he'd gone to his fifty, his fourth such score in the T20s this year, he swung Rayner into the deep, we never really looked like recovering after that.

De Bruyn was sent up the order to bat at three, a combination of wanting a wise old head to bat with Roy and keeping some Hamilton-Brown firepower for the lower order. Neither aspect of the plan worked out. De Bruyn wasn't able to contain Roy's exuberance and by the time Hamilton-Brown came in (below Schofield, another batting gamble) he had too much to do too quickly.

The scorecard says much about the plight our selection policy leaves us in, scores of 50, 31 and 46 from three of the top four, but nothing thereafter. So much pressure is heaped on Roy's shoulders because there is no power in the lower middle order, he has coped admirably but he can't be expected to deliver every single game.

We rely too heavily on batting first, and on one big score from one of the top five (or more regularly, two big-ish scores). With the batting power in our top five Twenty20 should be our game, but the tactics didn't allow enough flexibility and it's cost us at the crucial moments.

The squad can now focus their efforts on the CB40, in which we lie top of our group, and the Championship, where we are in the mix for promotion. They must look to get something out of one (or ideally both) of those competitions.

Win the toss, win the game...?

Well we lost, and it leaves us needing to win against a strong Sussex side at Hove tomorrow, plenty of pressure on now. From the moment Hamilton-Brown called wrongly at the toss I feared for our chances.

Kent's strength lies in the depth of their batting, and on a good pitch being given the chance to set a total they immediately looked comfortable batting first. Despite Key being the first of four run-outs in just the third over, they kept the run rate and the pressure up, only Dirk Nannes and the returning Jade Dernbach were able to offer the captain much control. Full credit to Darren Stevens and Azhar Mahmood, both of them batted (and bowled as it turned out) superbly.

The final Kent total of 181 actually represented a good comeback from Surrey, at one point we were in danger of conceding well over 200. A few good overs from Nannes and Dernbach at the death made it much more competitive. We conceded probably 10-15 runs in the field that we need not have, Arafat was particularly poor in that department.

Hamilton-Brown and Roy gave us a good platform in taking us to 87-1 but they were both dismissed within an over or so, and herein lies the problem with the selection with which Adams persists.

When the opposition has us three down, with only the allrounders to come thereafter, they know they can put the squeeze on and there's no outlet for us. I know there is no fool-proof solution to this, but if Maynard and de Bruyn could play with a bit more freedom - the freedom afforded by another pure batsman in the side, we would not have had such a problem tonight I feel. That none of our bottom six players passed 20 says an awful lot.

I can see the argument behind having six bowling options, but our side has eight bowling options, I just think we can afford to play the extra batsman, and in a must-win game it's surely worth gambling on the fitness of Mark Ramprakash and adding him to the squad?

The situation is what it is, we have one game left to play, we have to win it, simple. We are a good side under pressure, and we've already shown we can beat Sussex this season. But make no mistake, Sussex have to win to guarantee qualification as well and they are no mugs. The composition of the side is unlikely to change significantly, only Wilson or Schofield can really come in given the squad named and given Arafat's performance tonight and the nature of the pitch at Hove, Schofield could well play tomorrow night. It's all to play for, come on the 'Rey!

Dernbach in, Tremlett out for decisive games

After today's nerve-jangling victory over Kent in the Championship, tomorrow the focus switches back to the Twenty20 with the same opposition at the Oval, and the final group game at Hove on Friday.

The good news is Jade Dernbach returns from his double-wicket final game heroics to clinch England's series with Sri Lanka. The bad news is Chris Tremlett, the hero of last Friday's Hampshire game, will not be allowed to play by the ECB. The squad and expected XI is as follows:

Davies
Roy
Hamilton-Brown
Maynard
De Bruyn
Ansari
Batty
Arafat
Meaker
Dernbach
Nannes

Bench: Wilson, Schofield

It's as you were then, aside from the logical swap of Dernbach for Tremlett. Although Batty only bowled a solitary over on Friday there's little reason to bring in Schofield in his stead (or Wilson for that matter, since Adams clearly likes to keep his bowling options open). And why would you change the formula which saw us comfortably overcome the form team of the South Group?

You still feel that there's a really big score just around the corner for Roy or Hamilton-Brown, they've both looked in decent form but only have high scores of 52 and 51 respectively.

Kent are in decent T20 form having won four of their last six games, including a relatively comfortable win over us at Beckenham (I haven't quite fathomed de Bruyn's innings in that game yet). Darren Stevens and Azhar Mahmood have been in good form for them with the bat but their opening pair have been poor. Mahmood has likewise been a threat with the ball, as ever, though it's his countryman Wahab Riaz who is the real danger.

On the back of four consecutive T20 wins we have to go into this match as strong favourites, which is always dangerous. Having had a good look at Key over the last day or so though, Hamilton-Brown will know better than to under estimate his counterpart and his troops.

If we win tomorrow we qualify for the quarter finals for the first time, if memory serves me right, since 2006. At the moment we really do look a good unit in limited overs cricket, I've criticised Adams' selections in the past (and I still think he picks to many bowlers!) but I cannot argue with the results being delivered. One more win and things are really looking up!

A win is a win, but not convincing

First, the positives: we won, Zander de Bruyn scored a masterful hundred, Zafar Ansari served further notice of his outstanding talent and cool head, and Tim Linley took seven wickets in the match.

This was an important game, nine Championship matches are now on the board and we've notched three wins, just one fewer win that we managed in 16 games last season. Promotion is still very much on the cards and if you look back over the last couple of months, our form has generally been good.

But there's the not so good news as well. We had Kent firmly on the rack at 87-6 in their first innings, when you reduce a side to that sort of position you should be looking at getting them 130-150 all out, not the 250 Kent eventually made. Finishing teams off has long been an issue for us. Then there's our second innings batting, only one player passed 30 and no one passed 50. Rob Key gave a masterclass in how to build an innings and very nearly forced victory for his team. In the end it was a 30 run 10th wicket partnership between Linley and Tremlett which saved us, that shouldn't have to be the case!

As Chris Adams quite rightly said after the game we let Kent sneak back in, and that is, in his words, criminal. But Adams also pointed out that we "found a way to win the game", by hook or by crook, we got over the line and the winning habit is something that a young team will thrive on.

You have to think that to be sure of promotion we need at least three wins from those last seven games, four ideally, and that is no mean feat (especially given the 'summer' we're having). There will be plenty of positivity around the team now though, and by forcing the win today we've given ourselves a good platform.