This is the second time I've seen Surrey in a t20 this season, the first was agaisnt Essex. Both performances were very similar with a good start, big dip and then a recovery. The Curran's are going to be great
Canters - Foakes is the new Wilson. Just when the innings needs momentum, it's 5 runs from 10 balls. I agree about Sibley, however he looks injury prone.
Davies has lost his way, probably a result of giving up the gloves. All the pressure is on his batting. When he opened the batting with Hamilton-Brown in one days a few seasons ago , he played with freedom, but he was a wk/batsman at the time.
The 4,5,6 positions need resolving by recruiting a proper middle order batsmen to back up Roy & Sanga. Preferably a solid English player not likely to be called up too often. I can't see Finch opening with Roy when Sanga goes off to the Caribbean T20. I'd slip him in at 4 in the short term. He'll get in early anyway, because Roy hits it up in the air whenever he gets impatient. Its just a question of when and how many he has scored before he does.
Agree Foakes isn't ideal in the short stuff. In fact I'd probably say he isn't up to it. Wilson has done a job there for a few years without ever being spectacular. Last year he started badly, but moved down the order (below Ansari and often one or both Currans) and he began to do a bit better. He became a specialist 'single off every ball' which is okay if you have someone going at the other end but isn't great. I'd say Wilson edges it for me.
Agree Davies has lost it but I don't think you can blame it on losing the gloves. He has always been a player who has purple patches where he is brilliant but has long periods out of form. He chose to give up keeping to work on his batting as he had been out of form for so long. His most recent purple patch came in the 4 months after giving up the gloves. But since then he has given nothing. Would drop him in the long stuff. He has stated his intention of keeping again and has been working on it since the end of last season. So maybe in the short stuff I would drop him down the order and let him keep (when Sibley is back) thus solving the Foakes/Wilson issue.
Agree re a top order batsman. I said at the beginning of the season we were one short. We are still missing Tom Maynard. Imagine having him bat 4 for us in all formats. What a talent he was. Four years ago today by the way #TLM55.
Disagree about Finch I want him opening. T20 is all about the start. As yesterday showed you have a good start and even if you crumble in the middle you can still post a good score. Start badly and you never get in the game. I would have Finch opening with Roy any day. There will be days when those two take attacks apart.
Started a championship match today vs Notts. Line up:
Rory Burns Arun Harinath Kumar Sangakkara Steve Davies Gary Wilson Zafar Ansari Ben Foakes(wk) Thomas Curran Gareth Batty(c) Stuart Meaker Ravi Rampaul
Roy is with the England squad for Tuesdays T20. Sibley deemed unfit at a fitness test this morning. Back still troubling him.
Was hoping we could take some confidence from recent limited overs displays into the championship but it seems we are back to our usual ways. 299-8
Davies top scored with 82. Good to see him back in the runs. Harinath got a hard fought 73. And Curran got a good half century. Other than that all pretty poor.
I read something interesting today regarding Sanga.
We know that Ford (who coached him when. He played for Sri Lanka) was key in bringing him to Surrey. Well with Ford's last minute exit apparently it unsettled Sanga and his heart has not really been in it this season. I have thought at times he hasn't looked that interested.
I'm sure this is a part of it but I think there is free more to it then that. Whilst it may have unsettled him I'm sure a player with the class of Sanga would not let that change too much.
I do think that the environment will have changed with a new coach and when things started going wrong it meant the environment never had a chance to settle. I'm sure a player like Sanga must wonder at times why he bothers with a relegation battle at the stage of his career.
Hope he manages to turn his form around and helps to lift the team.
They are using the same pitch as the T20 on Friday. It had a tinge of green from a distance, which helped the seamers early on, but they may have left grass on to help it last four days. Both teams wanted to bat first, which also suggests it may turn on the 3rd & 4th days, so both wanted to avoid batting last.
299-8 was a fair score. 350 will be a good score on this pitch, so we need the tail to wag. None of the batsman ever looked in and the weak middle order was exposed again. Unless Sanga gets a big score, getting 400 plus looks a difficult task.
Rain all day tomorrow, so trying to win the game through the spinners may be scuppered by the weather.
Need a positive performance it has bat and ball in this matchmaking result may not happen because of rain. But we need to set a marker. Prove we can score runs and take wickets. Give us confidence going into the next few matches. We are so far at the bottom of the table we are gonna need a minimum for 4 wins to get out of danger. Can't see where 1 win is coming from let alone 4.
Interesting that Tom Curran is averaging more with the bat in Championship cricket than Burns Roy Davies and Wilson. Possibly more but I haven't checked.
Sanga hasn't got a score for about 8 innings which for a player of his class is very poor.
Batting well here.. would like a 450 lead but anything over 400 is fine. Would like a day to bowl them out... have to be ruthless and go for the win. Draws aren't enough from here..
They are using the same pitch as the T20 on Friday. It had a tinge of green from a distance, which helped the seamers early on, but they may have left grass on to help it last four days. Both teams wanted to bat first, which also suggests it may turn on the 3rd & 4th days, so both wanted to avoid batting last.
299-8 was a fair score. 350 will be a good score on this pitch, so we need the tail to wag. None of the batsman ever looked in and the weak middle order was exposed again. Unless Sanga gets a big score, getting 400 plus looks a difficult task.
Rain all day tomorrow, so trying to win the game through the spinners may be scuppered by the weather.
That plan worked then. Ansari & Batty bowling on what was effectively a 5th day pitch. Well done Surrey.
Indeed top lad! What a knock. Shame Surrey are doing absolute wank without him!!
Glamorgan beat us every time. They love playing Surrey.
Need to beat Essex tomorrow.
It's something about Rudolph. He barely scored a run in 2 years for us. Top scored of 60. Average across all formats of about 10. But against us he has been exceptional. Always scores runs. Read he averages over 100 against us.
The batting just looked too weak last night. Too many players either not right for the format or out of form. I would have opened the batting with Tom Curran. Need a bit of striking at the top of the order.
Can't wait till Finch gets here, although he will weaken our championship side.
Of I was Alec Stewart I would have been on the phone to KP asking him just to play a few games for us to help him find some form before the CPL and to help us out.
Was at the Oval today. The opening partnership of Wilson/ Davies was a disaster. No momentum from the start, Davies hit one to short fine leg off the first ball of the second over and Wilson proceeded to run Sangakarra out. Burns hit one straight to mid on, it was three down for nothing and from that point onwards the batting never recovered. Surrey were 50 short of par and there was no pressure on Essex to chase only 117.
Di Venuto has only been in the head coach job for a couple of months, but he needs to have a big sort out of the batting order. Ansari at 5 is two places too high, Foakes and the Currans are all a place too high. WIthout Roy there is no impetus at the top. It's all on Sanga & Bravo. Wilson & Davies aren't dynamic enough to start an innings in T20. The arrival of Finch & Morris is coming too late.
Agreed. T20 is all about momentum it's soo key. Boss the first over and you win the game 90% of the time. Once you have lost momentum it is so hard to wrest it back Wilson is not a T20 batsman let alone an opener. He is only filling in, in the absence of Roy. Davies hasn't done it in such a long time he is only there through lack of options.
Personally I would have opened with Tom Curran. Has outperformed a lot of our batsmen this year and hits a very long ball. It may not work but he could just get us off to that flier we need. If it doesn't work out we haven't lost much.
Since the start of the season we have been a batsman short, and that needed to be a T20 batsman who can be explosive down the order in the championship. We still haven't replaced Tom Maynard, imagine him at 4 in all formats. Also if I was Alec Stewart I would be on the phone to KP asking him to play for us whenever he is not otherwise engaged.
We uaually do better in one day stuff as Burns/Foakes/Ansari/Sibley etc are more suited to that format.
Personally I would rather Bravo than Morris. He is a far better batsman and an eqial T20 bowler, arguably better at the death. Finch is a different type of player to Sanga and may be that added firepower we need but there isn't much to choose between them.
Not sure the Currans and Ansari are a position too high.. for one we have no one else. Two you need 6 bowlers so 7 to 11 have to be picked on bowling first and foremost. They should not be blamed for those higher up the order failing with the bat. Maybe Mahmood could come in and strengthen the batting a bit.
Roy Sibley Sanga Bravo Burns Davies Ansari Sam Curran Tom Curran Batty Rampaul.
Involves Davies keeping but hopefully him moving down the order and keeping will take a bit of pressure off him. Of he doesn't find some form soon I'll be more than happy to let him leave at the end of the year. Always been an all or nothing player but last two seasons has been nothing more often than not.... Would still like to see Dernbach return to fitness...
From what I've seen, whenever the openers have got going this season in one-day and T20 Surrey have won. Wilson may be OK in a 50 over game but not T20. Is Finch an opener? He'll be starting next week but of course we won't have Sanga.
This could go badly. They already have a huge lead. Is it just me who thinks that 6 man bowling attack should not be struggling to take wickets this much.
Footit who has had test call ups and has been thought of as next cab off the rank for a while now.
TC who was joint top wicket taker in div 2 with Footit.
Sam Curran who is thought of as a great prospect for the future.
Meaker who whilst he has had troubles in the last few years he has always been a quality bowler and some think he is back to his best.
Ansari who would have been in the test squad this winter and is thought of as one of the best spinners on the circuit.
Batty who has a wealth of experience and by his own assessment is a far better bowler now than he was when he played a few tests.
And in other matches the vastly experienced Rampaul.
How is it that we have struggled to take wickets all season? Yet our batsmen make the pitches seem like minefields...
Finch coming in and hitting a century on debut suggests to me that there is something going on behind the scenes. Something that is destroying the atmosphere and making it hard for players to thrive on. It's even affected Sanga.
Comments
Agree Foakes isn't ideal in the short stuff. In fact I'd probably say he isn't up to it. Wilson has done a job there for a few years without ever being spectacular. Last year he started badly, but moved down the order (below Ansari and often one or both Currans) and he began to do a bit better. He became a specialist 'single off every ball' which is okay if you have someone going at the other end but isn't great. I'd say Wilson edges it for me.
Agree Davies has lost it but I don't think you can blame it on losing the gloves. He has always been a player who has purple patches where he is brilliant but has long periods out of form. He chose to give up keeping to work on his batting as he had been out of form for so long. His most recent purple patch came in the 4 months after giving up the gloves. But since then he has given nothing. Would drop him in the long stuff. He has stated his intention of keeping again and has been working on it since the end of last season. So maybe in the short stuff I would drop him down the order and let him keep (when Sibley is back) thus solving the Foakes/Wilson issue.
Agree re a top order batsman. I said at the beginning of the season we were one short. We are still missing Tom Maynard. Imagine having him bat 4 for us in all formats. What a talent he was. Four years ago today by the way #TLM55.
Disagree about Finch I want him opening. T20 is all about the start. As yesterday showed you have a good start and even if you crumble in the middle you can still post a good score. Start badly and you never get in the game. I would have Finch opening with Roy any day. There will be days when those two take attacks apart.
Rory Burns
Arun Harinath
Kumar Sangakkara
Steve Davies
Gary Wilson
Zafar Ansari
Ben Foakes(wk)
Thomas Curran
Gareth Batty(c)
Stuart Meaker
Ravi Rampaul
Roy is with the England squad for Tuesdays T20. Sibley deemed unfit at a fitness test this morning. Back still troubling him.
Was hoping we could take some confidence from recent limited overs displays into the championship but it seems we are back to our usual ways. 299-8
Davies top scored with 82. Good to see him back in the runs. Harinath got a hard fought 73. And Curran got a good half century. Other than that all pretty poor.
We know that Ford (who coached him when. He played for Sri Lanka) was key in bringing him to Surrey. Well with Ford's last minute exit apparently it unsettled Sanga and his heart has not really been in it this season. I have thought at times he hasn't looked that interested.
I'm sure this is a part of it but I think there is free more to it then that. Whilst it may have unsettled him I'm sure a player with the class of Sanga would not let that change too much.
I do think that the environment will have changed with a new coach and when things started going wrong it meant the environment never had a chance to settle. I'm sure a player like Sanga must wonder at times why he bothers with a relegation battle at the stage of his career.
Hope he manages to turn his form around and helps to lift the team.
They are using the same pitch as the T20 on Friday. It had a tinge of green from a distance, which helped the seamers early on, but they may have left grass on to help it last four days. Both teams wanted to bat first, which also suggests it may turn on the 3rd & 4th days, so both wanted to avoid batting last.
299-8 was a fair score. 350 will be a good score on this pitch, so we need the tail to wag. None of the batsman ever looked in and the weak middle order was exposed again. Unless Sanga gets a big score, getting 400 plus looks a difficult task.
Rain all day tomorrow, so trying to win the game through the spinners may be scuppered by the weather.
We are so far at the bottom of the table we are gonna need a minimum for 4 wins to get out of danger. Can't see where 1 win is coming from let alone 4.
Interesting that Tom Curran is averaging more with the bat in Championship cricket than Burns Roy Davies and Wilson. Possibly more but I haven't checked.
Sanga hasn't got a score for about 8 innings which for a player of his class is very poor.
A lead of 141... but we all know what happened at Taunton.
Ansari finishes with figures of 6-36.
We've won a game in the County Championship. I feel giddy.
thats great news !!! thanks EA
Need to beat Essex tomorrow.
Can't wait till Finch gets here, although he will weaken our championship side.
Of I was Alec Stewart I would have been on the phone to KP asking him just to play a few games for us to help him find some form before the CPL and to help us out.
Di Venuto has only been in the head coach job for a couple of months, but he needs to have a big sort out of the batting order. Ansari at 5 is two places too high, Foakes and the Currans are all a place too high. WIthout Roy there is no impetus at the top. It's all on Sanga & Bravo. Wilson & Davies aren't dynamic enough to start an innings in T20. The arrival of Finch & Morris is coming too late.
Personally I would have opened with Tom Curran. Has outperformed a lot of our batsmen this year and hits a very long ball. It may not work but he could just get us off to that flier we need. If it doesn't work out we haven't lost much.
Since the start of the season we have been a batsman short, and that needed to be a T20 batsman who can be explosive down the order in the championship. We still haven't replaced Tom Maynard, imagine him at 4 in all formats. Also if I was Alec Stewart I would be on the phone to KP asking him to play for us whenever he is not otherwise engaged.
We uaually do better in one day stuff as Burns/Foakes/Ansari/Sibley etc are more suited to that format.
Personally I would rather Bravo than Morris. He is a far better batsman and an eqial T20 bowler, arguably better at the death. Finch is a different type of player to Sanga and may be that added firepower we need but there isn't much to choose between them.
Not sure the Currans and Ansari are a position too high.. for one we have no one else. Two you need 6 bowlers so 7 to 11 have to be picked on bowling first and foremost. They should not be blamed for those higher up the order failing with the bat. Maybe Mahmood could come in and strengthen the batting a bit.
Roy
Sibley
Sanga
Bravo
Burns
Davies
Ansari
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Batty
Rampaul.
Involves Davies keeping but hopefully him moving down the order and keeping will take a bit of pressure off him. Of he doesn't find some form soon I'll be more than happy to let him leave at the end of the year. Always been an all or nothing player but last two seasons has been nothing more often than not....
Would still like to see Dernbach return to fitness...
Footit who has had test call ups and has been thought of as next cab off the rank for a while now.
TC who was joint top wicket taker in div 2 with Footit.
Sam Curran who is thought of as a great prospect for the future.
Meaker who whilst he has had troubles in the last few years he has always been a quality bowler and some think he is back to his best.
Ansari who would have been in the test squad this winter and is thought of as one of the best spinners on the circuit.
Batty who has a wealth of experience and by his own assessment is a far better bowler now than he was when he played a few tests.
And in other matches the vastly experienced Rampaul.
How is it that we have struggled to take wickets all season? Yet our batsmen make the pitches seem like minefields...
Finch coming in and hitting a century on debut suggests to me that there is something going on behind the scenes. Something that is destroying the atmosphere and making it hard for players to thrive on. It's even affected Sanga.
I am guessing but seems possible to me.
We're 5-1 in our second innings.
Same old, same old.