Hants V Surrey Championship

Day two

Another trip to the Oval on Sunday and one we hoped would be much better than Friday night’s disappointing visit.

We love going to the Oval and this trip was particularly exciting as owing to our Hampshire membership it meant we could go and sit inside the pavilion and enjoy the facilities for the first time. The member’s area at Surrey is fantastic and it was lovely to enjoy the views across central London whilst watching play. The other thing we really enjoyed about the pavilion was the history around the place. The paintings, the photos, the memorabilia was just fascinating to us and made rain delays more bearable.

The days play began with Surrey on 68-1 after rain ruined the opening day on the Saturday. Abbott and Tomlinson whose beard is getting more incredible by the week had little early luck with the ball so Jimmy Adams turned to spinner Danny Briggs. He immediately took two wickets dismissing Rory Burns and the well set Vikram Solanki. The other spinner who was only playing his second first class match was youngster Brad Taylor, a mere 17 years old and despite his age and inexperience against his peers he got Steve Davies out for 38 and the score was 180-4 at this point. What a trooper!

After lunch Briggs was in the wickets again getting the dangerous Dilshan who had motored the score along since coming in at no 4 for 69 and I thought Hampshire were in a position to really get into Surrey at 223-5. Unfortunately it did not work out this way and the on form Jason Roy and Surrey Captain Gary Wilson dominated the two spinners going at over four against them. Matt Coles was also poor and Hampshire had let Surrey get away from them.

The afternoon and evening session saw at least three rain delays but the interruptions did not affect the batsman as Roy brought up his century off 102 balls with 13 fours and three sixes. It meant that after Friday’s mauling by Roy it felt like all we had done this weekend was watch Jason Roy gradually destroy Hampshire’s hopes with every ball. Wilson finished on 63 not out with Surrey 382-5.

Amazing view from the top of the Pavilion

Day three

For Hampshire fans the day couldn’t have started any better, amazingly Kyle Abbott got Roy with the first ball of the day and Surrey struggled to score as freely thereafter. Once Surrey reached 400 and maximum bonus points Surrey fans I spoke to couldn’t work out why they hadn’t declared. Later on Coles bowled better than the day before and got the wickets of Wilson and O’Brien before Surrey declared at 474-8.

The time left in the game meant Hampshire could not win but had to at least save the follow on to prevent a possible defeat. Carberry went early to the impressive Matt Dunn but Smith and Adams looked comfortable whilst not scoring quickly on a pitch that was very lifeless. Adams was LBW to Batty for 79. A shame as he has played consistently well this season but has yet to reach three figures. Vince departed not long after for 7 LBW to Batty as well and a little worrying period at the end of the day was seen out by Sean Ervine 1* and Will Smith 61*. Bad light and rain brought another early finish to the day with Hampshire 167-3.

Day four and Hampshire survived a few more scares to draw the game but have surrendered top spot to Worcestershire whilst Surrey have gained a bit of ground in the promotion race.

Enjoying a rare opportunity to walk the pitch during lunch

Ian and Claire

Hants V Surrey T20

A rare poor Hampshire display saw them smashed by Surrey on Friday night at the Oval.

I guess this game was never going to be our night after train delays around Waterloo meant that it was an ordeal to make it to the Oval in time for play. We got there just as it started and as a result never felt settled.

Surrey won the toss and asked Hampshire to bat. Hampshire just didn’t get going and scoring was difficult on what looked a two paced pitch. The powerplay ended 36-3 which was very poor by Hampshire’s usual standards with Vince, Adams and Carberry all back in the pavillion cheaply. Things did not get any better as Ervine, Maxwell and Coles all came and went leaving the score 57-6. Will Smith re-built the innings as best as he could along with Chris Wood but Surrey were always on top.

Further regular wickets fell and Hampshire limped to a score of 133-9 from 20 overs. I thought that at this stage that we would be in the pub early and so it proved with Surrey and Jason Roy in particular making a mockery of Hampshire’s earlier batting efforts. He hit 9 fours and 3 sixes in an innings of 63 heavily outscoring Dilshan. Roy is the second highest run-scorer in the Blast and has produced consistent scores for a while and will be worth a place in the England T20 squad.

With the ball only Danny Briggs could really take any credit with 1-19 of his overs whilst the other bowlers took plenty of punishment from Roy, KP and Wilson. The game was won by a six at the end of the 14th over from Gary Wilson.

The defeat meant Hampshire stay second in the table behind Essex with Surrey gaining points to go third. Surrey on this evidence looked strong and as they were finalists last year I expect them to feature in the knockout rounds.

Hampshire should still qualify as hopefully this was just a bad night at the office. There are issues that need to be addressed though if we are to do well in the later stages. The bowling is not as strong as it could be and we are missing Liam Dawson. When the bowlers are struggling Vince does not have anywhere to turn to bowl a few overs. Ervine and Maxwell who you would hope could perform this role have struggled when asked to bowl.

The lower middle order are struggling too and are not capitalising on good starts by Carberry, Vince and Adams. When these three fail the result is what happened at the Oval. Dawson to come back from injury soon and room needs to be made for Owais Shah.

Half way predictions during both innings were tough, despite Hampshire’s poor play I guessed we would achieve 135 wheras Claire wasn’t as optimistic and went for 115. Fortunately Hampshire just about pulled through and I took the first point. Both knowing that Surrey were going to take the victory, it was a case of when so I went for the 14th over and Claire 15th… I again took the point which was a relief as Claire was 2 points ahead from the previous game we attended so we’re now equal!

 

Ian and Claire